Key issue in Iran nuclear talks could be resolved within months
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Version 0 of 1. VIENNA — The head of the international nuclear watchdog group — a day after returning from Tehran — said Saturday that a report documenting Iran’s past nuclear activities could be completed by the end of the year. The report is a key part of the agreement being negotiated here between Iran and the United States and other world powers. Although some critics of the potential accord have said Iran must specify its “possible military dimensions” as part of a final deal, the Obama administration has indicated it would be satisfied with whatever arrangement is reached between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. “Once an agreement on the joint comprehensive plan of action” is reached, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said, “the IAEA is ready to implement the nuclear-related elements when requested.” The statement by Amano, who met Thursday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, came amid reports that expert teams of negotiators have agreed on key parts of the accord, including sanctions relief for Iran. A senior administration official emphasized that no element of the agreement will be complete until it has been approved by foreign ministers of all negotiating partners. While U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, were meeting in Vienna on Saturday, other ministers are expected to return Sunday in the hope of meeting a Tuesday deadline. The United States leads a six-member negotiating group that includes Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. Each element of a potential agreement is being first hammered out by teams of experts before discussions on a political level. “Even if and when issues get resolved at an experts level, there will remain some open issues that can only be decided by ministers,” the official said. Some key decisions will also have to be sent back to capitals for final approval, another U.S. official said. “We are trying to narrow the number of issues that have to be dealt with by ministers as far as we possibly can,” the second official said. “There are literally hundreds of small decisions that have to be made in the context of negotiating agreement like this,” some of which have already been approved at the highest levels. U.S. and other officials discussed the closed-door negotiations on the condition of anonymity. Kerry spent most of Saturday outside the negotiating room in talks with members of the U.S. team, officials said. Kerry and Zarif had an “impromptu discussion” Saturday afternoon at the Coburg Palace Hotel where the talks are going on, and an additional early-evening session with Zarif was scheduled. Separately, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz held more than three hours of talks with Ali-Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. They were joined by U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Iranian Foreign Ministry deputies Abbass Araqchi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi, along with European Union deputy foreign policy adviser Helga Schmid. The current negotiations here have been underway for three months, after both sides had agreed to a political framework that outlined major areas of accord. Kerry and Zarif returned here a week ago for what officials have characterized as the “endgame” of the talks. An initial deadline for completion by June 30 was extended to Tuesday, but negotiators hope that if agreement is to be reached it will come by Monday. Both President Obama and Kerry have said repeatedly that the United States is prepared to walk away if a “good deal” cannot be achieved. Under compromise legislation agreed to with Congress, Obama has until Friday to transmit to lawmakers the text of an agreement and all annexes, along with written assurance by Kerry that Iran has verifiably stopped all work toward developing a nuclear weapon. The legislation allows Congress 30 days to review the documents — and vote a resolution of disapproval if it so chooses — before any sanctions are lifted. If the documents arrive after Friday , that period increases to 60 days. Purported leaks out of the highly secret negotiations, and the responses they have drawn from critics in the United States and Iran, have plagued the talks. Among other things, critics have focused on Iran’s insistence that sanctions be lifted with the completion of the agreement. U.S. officials have suggested that question may be addressed by delaying the actual implementation date of provisions of the accord until verification of Iranian compliance on the nuclear side. Verification issues have been complicated by public statements in which Iran has repeatedly said inspectors will not be allowed to visit Iranian military facilities or to interview nuclear scientists. Amano said that “progress . . . on the way forward” was made in his meeting with Rouhani. Inspection of military facilities is considered key to determining not only whether Iran is trying to cheat on a deal, but also the extent of its previous work on a nuclear weapon. Iran denies that its nuclear program has been for any purpose other than energy production. Shortly after Amano’s comments, a senior Iranian official in Tehran repeated that military visits and scientist interviews would not be permitted. “Our red lines include permission for visiting the military centers and interview[s] with nuclear scientists as well as the points explicitly stated by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution,” Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khameinei, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the parliamentary national security commission, told Iran’s Fars News agency Saturday. |