Negotiators working on a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program have busted another deadline, pushing back against international pressure to finish.
Though they say agreement is close and have set a new goal — they’re no longer calling it a deadline — of Friday to finish their work, diplomats from Iran and the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China plan to no longer worry about the clock and keep talking.
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“I told you one week ago more or less that we are interpreting our deadline in a flexible way. Which means that we are taking the time, the days, that we still need to finalize the agreement, which is something that is still possible even if now we are getting into the difficult time,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters on Tuesday, the previous deadline negotiators had set.
The deal would freeze Iran’s nuclear program for 10 years in exchange for relief from international sanctions that have crippled its economy, along with the release of more than $100 billion in frozen assets.
Here’s a look at the issues holding up the talks:
1. Sanctions relief: Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state-controlled Press TV on Tuesday that an “understanding” had been reached on economic and financial sanctions. “There are several kinds of sanctions, most important of which are economic and financial sanctions, on which we have an agreement, on which we have already decided how to deal with economic and financial sanctions, they would all be lifted on the implementation day,” he said.
But the issue of what to do with the United Nations arms embargo and sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program remain unresolved. Russia, which is eager to sell advanced arms to Iran, has backed Tehran’s demand for a removal of the arms embargo, but the United States and other European negotiators have balked at the idea.
“Under no circumstances should we relieve pressure on Iran when it comes to ballistic missiles or arms trafficking,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
But a senior U.S. official told reporters in Vienna the restrictions could be loosened as part of a final deal. That’s not likely to please lawmakers, who must vote on any deal and are concerned it would give Iran greater leeway to aid terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere.
2. Verification of Iran’s past nuclear work: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday that the issue of Iran’s past nuclear work had been resolved. Iran is under a U.N. Security Council demand that it come clean about any past nuclear weapons work, and neutral experts agree that no deal would be verifiable without that full accounting.
“Now the talk is about the processes, the procedures of applying these or those steps, if anyone has suspicions in regard to the conscientious fulfillment of commitments by the other side,” Lavrov said before leaving Vienna.
Negotiators from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been in Tehran trying to negotiate Iranian compliance. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said Saturday that “progress was made on the way forward, but more work is needed.”
“With cooperation from Iran I think we can issue a report by the end of the year on the assessment of the clarification of the issues related to the possible military dimensions,” he added.
3. Limits on Iran’s research and development: According to news reports, this issue has emerged as one of the last-minute sticking points. Under a framework for a final deal announced April 2, Iran had agreed to limit its research and development of advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium for 10 years and stick to a plan approved by the IAEA after that. But Iranian officials have pushed back on that understanding almost from the time it was announced.
