Kerry edges closer to nuclear deal with Iran
“I want to emphasise there is not an agreement at this point,” Kerry said in Geneva yesterday, tempering expectations of an imminent breakthrough that could reduce the risk of a Middle East war over Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
“We hope to try to narrow these differences but I don’t think anybody should mistake there are some important gaps that have to be closed,” he told reporters.
Iran spelled out a major difference soon afterwards, with a member of its negotiating team, Majid Takt-Ravanchi, telling Mehr news agency that oil and banking sanctions imposed on Tehran should be eased during the first phase of any deal.
The powers have offered Iran access to up to $50 billion in Iranian funds frozen abroad for many years but ruled out any broad dilution of sanctions in the early going of an agreement.
Midway through the second round of negotiations since Iran elected a moderate president who opened doors to a peaceful solution to the nuclear dispute, Kerry joined big power foreign ministers to help cement a preliminary accord, with Israel warning they were making an epic mistake.
Diplomats said a breakthrough was uncertain and would in any case mark only the first step in a long, complex process towards a permanent resolution of international concerns that Iran may be seeking the means to build nuclear bombs.
But they said the arrival of Kerry, British foreign secretary William Hague and French and German foreign ministers Laurent Fabius and Guido Westerwelle signalled that the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany may be closer to an elusive pact with Iran than ever before.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will join the talks today.
Lavrov’s deputy was quoted by state-run RIA news agency as saying the sides were loath to leave Geneva “without a positive result (since to do so) would be a serious strategic mistake”.
A senior US State Department official said Kerry was committed to doing “anything he can” to overcome the chasm with the Islamic Republic.
The top US diplomat arrived from Tel Aviv where he met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who regards Iran’s atomic aspirations as a menace to the Jewish state.
Netanyahu warned Kerry and his European counterparts that Iran would be getting “the deal of the century” if they carried out proposals to grant Tehran limited, temporary relief from sanctions in exchange for a partial suspension of, and pledge not to expand, its enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel.
