World powers want Iran to suspend certain parts of its nuclear programme for several months.
A general view shows participants before the start of three days of closed-door nuclear talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday, November 20, 2013. AP
Iran and world powers were set on Thursday to begin hammering out a landmark deal freezing parts of Tehran’s atomic programme to ease fears of the Islamic republic getting nuclear weapons.
“No deal that does not include the right to uranium enrichment from start to finish will be accepted,” Abbas Araghchi said on his Twitter account, quoted by official news agency IRNA.
“Considerable gaps remain,” a senior Western diplomat said after Wednesday’s initial meetings in rainy Geneva.
Another was more upbeat: “I am not saying it’s in the bag but we are in a process that started well and which could lead to a deal this weekend ... We are getting to the heart of the matter.”
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who at the last round 10 days ago succeeded in toughening the powers’ draft proposal, said on Thursday he was hoping for “solid” deal.
“This deal will only be possible if it has a firm base,” Fabius told France 2 television.
“Of course Iran has the right to a civilian nuclear programme but not to an atomic bomb. This is the common position we are defending.”
Numerous attempts to resolve the standoff have failed over the last decade, but the election this year of Hasan Rohani as president has raised hopes that this time a deal can be struck.
With the country reeling from sanctions, since taking office in August Rohani has put the brakes for the first time in years on expanding Iran’s atomic activities.
The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the P5+1, now want Iran to suspend certain parts of its nuclear programme for several months.
In return Iran is being offered minor sanctions relief, although officials insist that core sanctions on its oil exports and banks will stay in place.
Over subsequent months a final deal would be worked out.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jarad Zarif said on Facebook that on Thursday he would hold “serious and detailed” talks with P5+1 chief negotiator and EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton.
“I will have a meeting with Lady Ashton, which is the beginning of negotiations to examine how to finalise the draft,” the ISNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying.
This would be followed later by talks between Zarif and the political directors of all six powers chaired by Ashton.
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