Nuke deal deadline passes but talks continue

Iran nuclear talks passed their second deadline in a week yesterday, casting new questions about the ability of world powers to cut off all Iranian pathways to a bomb through diplomacy. But the parties agreed to continue their talks.

“We knew it would have been difficult, challenging, and sometimes hard,” said Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief. Negotiations, she said, will continue for the next couple of days, despite some tensions.

As the latest target date arrived for a deal setting a decade of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and other top diplomats huddled in Vienna in search of a breakthrough. All had spoken of deep differences remaining even after 11 days of discussions, and there was no public indication they had resolved disputes ranging from inspection rules on suspicious Iranian sites to limits on Tehran’s research and development of advanced nuclear technology.