U.N. talks on Iran make little progress
Deadline looms on nuclear negotiations
UNITED NATIONS – The latest round of talks over Iran’s nuclear program limped toward a close Friday without the breakthrough that many hoped could be delivered during the annual meeting in New York of the United Nations General Assembly.
With less than two months remaining before the talks’ deadline, it had been thought that world leaders might make bold compromises that lower-level officials have so far been unable to deliver in seven months of regular meetings.
Instead, foreign ministers of the six major powers that are trying to negotiate a deal with Iran – the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – called off a planned group session. Diplomats quoted French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as saying the meeting was canceled because there were “no significant advances” to justify it.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry still was expected to meet with his counterparts from Iran and the European Union, and it was possible that lower-level meetings would be held over the weekend.
An agreement would aim to limit Iran’s nuclear program to nonmilitary uses in exchange for lifting Western sanctions that have obstructed its crucial oil sales and damaged its economy.
Some top Western and Iranian officials remained optimistic in public comments.
Wendy Sherman, the chief U.S. negotiator, told the Voice of America Persian service that the group was making progress, though “there are some very crucial decisions that need to be made.”
But privately, other diplomats said the group had been unable to move forward on core issues, starting with how much of its uranium-enrichment capacity Tehran will get to maintain. Iran wants to keep all 20,000 installed centrifuges and take steps that will allow it to increase its capacity tenfold by 2021.
Some fear it is unlikely, in the absence of a breakthrough this week, that lower-level officials will be able over the next two months to resolve disagreements they have debated repeatedly since January.
Even if lower-level negotiators can overcome the major hurdles, it is unclear that they will have time to resolve the many complicated secondary issues that must be addressed by the Nov. 24 deadline. The negotiators already had given themselves a four-month extension on their original deadline.