Dispute Over Sanctions Pushes Iran Nuclear Talks Out To 10 July

Dispute over UN sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program said to be a Key issue of contention in negotiations.

Talks between Iran and Western powers to find a nuclear deal will continue until 10 July, the US State Department has announced.

“To allow for the additional time to negotiate, we are taking the necessary technical steps for the measures of the Joint Point of Action to remain in place through July 10,” US State Deparment spokesman Marie Harf said Tuesday.

Ms. Harf said “substantial progress in every area” had been made, but negotiators need time to work on the “highly technical and high stakes” details of the agreement.
“We are frankly more concerned about the quality of the deal than we are about the clock,” she said.

The US statement comes as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also said that negotiators “are continuing the talks for the next couple of days” beyond the 7 July deadline.

“This does not mean we are extending our deadline. I told you one week ago more or less, we are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalize the agreement,” she said.

Foreign ministers and officials from Iran and members of the 5P+1 group, comprising Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US are gathered in Vienna to try to strike a deal with Iran.

Last week both sides effectively gave themselves until 7 July to finalize a deal ending a 13-yr standoff by extending the terms of a November 2013 interim deal to that date.

An Iranian official previously told reporters that: “Even if we pass July 9, that will not be the end of the world, there will be another period for us to watch.”

A dispute over UN sanctions on Iran’s ballistic missile program, as well sanctions on arms exports, are said to be among the Key issues holding up the agreement before this latest self-imposed deadline.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is under pressure to nail down the deal by Thursday in order to send it to the Republican-controlled US Congress for a 30-day review.

Under a new law, if the deal is reached after 9 July, US legislators will have 60 days to vote on it, giving opponents who think the deal is too weak more chances to try to torpedo the agreement.

Building on the April framework, the P5+1 powers want Iran to sharply curb its nuclear program to make any push to acquire an atomic bomb all but impossible, in return for sanctions relief.

Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are purely for peaceful purposes.