Iran has offered “constructive solutions” to resolve disputes in nuclear talks with six major powers, the Iranian Students news agency ISNA reported yesterday, but Western officials suggested they had heard nothing new from Tehran.
Iran and the powers are in the last stretch of talks to reach a final agreement to end a more than 12-year standoff over the country’s disputed nuclear programme. The goal an agreement that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme for at least a decade.
“Iran has presented constructive solutions to overcome the remaining differences. We will not show flexibility regarding our red lines,” an Iranian diplomat, who was not identified, told ISNA.
But Western officials indicated they have yet to see new proposals from Iran that could end the deadlock. The biggest sticking points include issues such as a United Nations arms embargo, UN missile sanctions, the speed of sanctions relief, and research and development on advanced nuclear centrifuges.
Western countries accuse Iran of seeking the capability to build nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
A successful deal could change balance of power in the Middle East, the biggest milestone in decades towards easing hostility between Iran and the United States, foes since Iranian revolutionaries stormed the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
It would be a political success for both US President Barack Obama and Iran’s pragmatic President Hassan Rouhani, both of whom face scepticism from powerful hardliners at home.
Heated exchange
Russia and China, which have never hidden their dislike of sanctions, had indicated they would support the termination of the arms embargo on Iran and UN missile sanctions, both of which date back to 2006.
In the end, however, Moscow and Beijing agreed not to break ranks with the Americans and Europeans who want to maintain the arms embargo and missile sanctions, given instability in the Middle East.
“In the current context, it would be pretty obscene as a political message if we resolve the nuclear issue but then give them money and the capacity to import and export arms,” a senior Western official said.
Russia is especially sensitive about sanctions, Western officials say, due to the fact that it itself is under US and European Union sanctions over allegations that it is supporting pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, which it denies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stayed behind in Vienna in an attempt to break the logjam while most of the other foreign ministers returned to their capitals. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who is coordinating the talks, also remained in Vienna to help find a compromise.
Kerry and Zarif were involved in a tense exchange of positions on UN sanctions on Monday night, diplomats said. Tehran says conventional weapons and missiles have nothing to do with the nuclear issue and bans should therefore be removed.
