LAUSANNE, Switzerland, (Reuters) – Iran and six world powers suspended negotiations on a nuclear agreement and were set to meet again next week to break a deadlock over sensitive atomic research and lifting of sanctions, Western officials said yesterday.
While the talks have made progress over the past year, differences on sticking points are still wide enough to potentially prevent an agreement in the end.
France was demanding more stringent restrictions on the Iranians under any deal than the other Western delegations, officials said.
A European negotiator said the six power group – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China – was generally unified but voiced concern that the Obama administration was under pressure due to concerns Republican-led Congress might wreck any agreement.
“The great paradox is that Congress and Israel have put the pressure on the Americans instead of pressuring Iran which is what we need to be doing,” the official said.
Iran’s delegation told the six powers it was returning to Tehran due to the death of President Hassan Rouhani’s 90-year-old mother on Friday.
Prior to the Iranian departure, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation chief Ali Akbar Salehi held another series of meetings to break the impasse.
Technical and political experts have also gathered daily to discuss options that could form the basis of an agreement under which Iran would accept curbs on sensitive nuclear work for at least a decade and sanctions on it would be gradually eased.
There was no breakthrough this week. Disagreements arose among the powers, with France insisting on a longer period of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear work. It also opposed the idea of suspending some U.N. sanctions relatively quickly if a deal is struck.
Iran, which denies allegations from the Western powers and their allies that it harbours nuclear weapons ambitions, wants all U.N. sanctions to be lifted immediately, including those targeting its nuclear programme.
“They insist they have to go immediately. No way. It is out the question,” said a senior European negotiator.
Zarif said the talks had reached a “very crucial point” and progress had been made this week. He also suggested the six powers needed to reach a unified position.
“Given that Americans had officially said that further internal coordination meetings needed among the (six) members, the talks were ended and will resume next week in Lausanne,” Iran’s ISNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying.
Kerry said they made good progress, adding: “We’ll be back next week.” Russia’s chief negotiator Sergei Ryabkov told Reuters he agreed wholeheartedly with Kerry’s assessment.
