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21 November 2014

Iran Nuclear talks may drag on till March

Nov 21, 2014 

A deadline for resolving a 12-year-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme may be extended from Monday until March because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials close to the talks said on Thursday.

US secretary of state John Kerry will arrive in Vienna later for what Washington and its allies had hoped would be the culmination of months of diplomacy between Iran and the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

The aim is to remove sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme, but the talks have been deadlocked; the timing for lifting sanctions and future scope of Iran’s uranium enrichment are key stumbling blocks.

“Important points of difference remain,” French foreign minister Laurent Fabius told a joint press conference with Mr Kerry, who met him in Paris on his way to Vienna later on Thursday. The latest round of talks between the six began on Tuesday and are likely to last right up to the self-imposed November 24 deadline for a final agreement. “Some kind of interim agreement at this point is likely, or perhaps at best a framework agreement by Monday that needs to be worked out in the coming weeks and months,” a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

US deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken had said a comprehensive deal was not impossible to achieve by Monday.

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