Iran N-talks extended

LAUSANNE: Rollercoaster talks aimed at stopping Iran getting a nuclear bomb went into extra time on Wednesday amid cautious signs that after seven days of tough negotiations a framework deal may be near.
Speaking after Iran and major powers missed a midnight deadline to agree the outlines of a potentially historic accord, Iran’s chief negotiator appeared hopeful.
“We believe that at the end of the day we will be able to come to a conclusion and a resolution for all issues,” Abbas Araghchi said in a live interview with Iranian state television from Lausanne.
He said he expected a press statement to be released, but repeated that global powers and Iran were still haggling over two main sticking points — a mechanism for lifting crippling sanctions against the Islamic republic and the country’s research ands development programme.
The US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany want Iran to scale down Iran’s nuclear programme to extend the “breakout” time needed for Iran to assemble enough nuclear material to make a bomb.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped “that we will reach a compromise today which meets the conditions we have laid down, which means Iran has no access to a nuclear weapon.”
Iran denies wanting the bomb and its negotiators are under strict orders from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to refuse any curtailing of its programme without sanctions relief.
Araghchi offered some specifics, saying “in the first step of the deal, we are eager for all sanctions including economic, financial, oil and bank” to be lifted.
Global powers have always refused an immediate lifting of all sanctions in order to be able to swiftly put them back into place if Iran violates the deal.
The stakes are high, with fears that failure may set the United States and Israel on a road to military action to thwart Iran’s nuclear drive.
The White House warned again Tuesday that the military option to deprive the Islamic republic of nuclear arms remained “on the table”.