Kerry and Fabius refute reports of gap between allies on remaining roadblocks to agreement on curtailing Tehran’s atomic program.
Is this the Bibi effect?
News Agencies
The United States and France sought on Saturday to play down any disagreements over nuclear talks with Iran, saying they both agreed the accord now under discussion needed to be strengthened.
“We are on the same page,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters after talks with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Paris.
“If we didn’t think that there was further to go, as Laurent said, we’d have had an agreement already,” Kerry added. “The reason we don’t have an agreement is, we believe there are gaps that have to be closed. There are things that have to be done to further strengthen this. We know this.”
The aim of the negotiations is to persuade Iran to restrain its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions that have crippled its economy. Iran, a major oil exporter, wants the sanctions scrapped swiftly, the powers only in phases.
France’s Fabius said on Friday commitments offered by Iran in the nuclear talks with six world powers do not go far enough and more work needs to be done, notably on what he called “volume, checks and duration”.
On Saturday, Fabius made clear that by volume he meant the number and quality of centrifuges Iran might be allowed to operate under any deal. By checks, he meant an inspection and verification regime to ensure Iran does not violate the deal.
“There is still work to be done,” said Fabius, whose government has positioned itself as more demanding on the conditions Iran must meet under any nuclear agreement.
The comments from the top French and American diplomats appeared to be at odds with those of a senior Iranian official, who said some roadblocks hindering an agreement had been cleared.
Iran’s vice president, Ali Akbar Salehi, said technical impediments in the way of a final nuclear accord had been eliminated during the ongoing discussions with American negotiators.
Salehi, who is also in charge of Iran’s nuclear agency, told Iranian state television on Saturday that Tehran offered proposals to remove “fake concerns” over the country’s nuclear program, paving the way for a final deal.
The next round of nuclear talks is set to begin March 15, involving mainly US and Iranian representatives. A small European delegation also will participate.
That configuration has led to some complaints that the talks involving the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and Iran have become more of an American-Iranian project. Objections, notably from France over certain provisions, held up agreement on an interim deal with Iran in November 2013.
Kerry denied such suggestions. He noted that he and Fabius would join German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond as well as the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini, for more detailed discussions.
“This is not a bilateral negotiation… and all of our partners are consistently sharing information, sharing ideas,” Kerry said.
Kerry stressed that Iran still needs to make decisions to prove to the world it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran claims its nuclear program is peaceful and exists only to produce energy for civilian use.
“We have a critical couple of weeks ahead of us,” Kerry said. “But we are not feeling a sense of urgency that we have to get any deal. We have to get the right deal.”
Western powers and Israel suspect Iran of having used its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop a nuclear weapons capability. Iran denies this, saying its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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