UK ambassador urges US Congress not to impose new sanctions on Iran

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/22/uk-ambassador-us-congress-sanctions-iran

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Britain's ambassador in Washington has urged the US Congress not to impose new sanctions on Iran while delicate nuclear negotiations are making progress in Geneva.

Peter Westmacott made his appeal as the latest round of talks entered its third day, with diplomats from Iran, the EU and six world powers trying to overcome the last few remaining hurdles to a landmark deal. Officials said it seemed likely the negotiations would enter an unplanned fourth day on Saturday but it was not clear whether the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and other foreign ministers would fly in – which would be a clear sign a breakthrough was at hand.

"The deal currently under negotiation would be a meaningful first step, immediately improving our national security and that of our partners in the region. This is, therefore, a critical week for diplomacy," Peter Westmacott wrote in the Washington political website The Hill.

"Many gaps between the parties have been bridged altogether; those that remain have narrowed considerably. But further sanctions now would only hurt negotiations and risk eroding international support for the sanctions that have brought us this far."

Diplomats in Geneva said talks had whittled down the number of sticking points to a handful, but they remained intractable. One of them was the question of how far the international community should go in endorsing Iran's right to enrich uranium. The other was to what extent work should be allowed to continue at a heavy water reactor in Arak, which would produce plutonium when completed.

"Yesterday we talked about the issues we don't agree on and naturally delegations needed to consult their capitals. In some cases, we have had results," the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who leads the country's delegation, said. "In some cases a number of phrases have been added [to the text] and we still need to do some work in other cases. We are dealing with an issue that was the subject of difference for 10 years."

Zarif added that the possibility of Kerry and other foreign ministers flying in was closer than it had been a day earlier but added: "It's up to them whether they want to come or not."

The draft deal on the table is intended to buy six months for further negotiations aimed at an enduring settlement on the decade-old standoff, fending off the threat of a new war in the Middle East.

Iran would get access to some frozen bank accounts and could start trading again in gold, petrochemicals, vehicle and aeroplane parts. In exchange, Iran would stop or reverse different parts of its nuclear programme.

"If Iran does not get wording on the right to enrich, then the deal is unbalanced in the west's favour. They get verifiable limits and roll-back on every single critical element of the Iranian programme, and Iran would just get access to its own money," said Reza Marashi, a former US state department official now at the National Iranian American Council.

According to sources at the talks, a compromise deal on the Arak heavy water reactor had been written into the text of the draft agreement at the last Geneva round which ended on 10 November. Under that compromise, Iran would cease work on making fuel rods but would continue other elements at the long-delayed project. However, on French insistence, the paragraphs on Arak were put back into brackets, meaning they were open to negotiation again. In response, Iran asked for concessions elsewhere to "rebalance the deal".

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