France pushes for strong nuclear deal with Iran

It comes as Iran's foreign minister seemed open to missing the June 30 deadline.

LUXEMBOURG // France wants a robust nuclear agreement with Iran that must include a strong verification mechanism to check Tehran’s compliance with any deal, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday.

Mr Fabius spoke after meeting Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was in Luxembourg for talks with European ministers before negotiators head to Vienna this week for what could be the final stage of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran and six world powers are nearing a June 30 deadline to clinch a deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme for at least a decade in exchange for relief from sanctions.

Before the meeting, Mr Zarif said it was worth missing the deadline by a few days in order to get a good agreement. France has been more hawkish than some of the six powers.

“France wants an agreement, but a strong agreement, not a bad agreement,” Mr Fabius said after an hour of talks with Mr Zarif.

Such an accord would include a time limit on Iran’s nuclear research and production capabilities and an advanced regime to verify Iran’s compliance with the agreement, including “if necessary” at military sites, he said.

It should also include the automatic return of sanctions if Iran violates its commitments, Mr Fabius said.

“All that is important both for regional security and for action against nuclear proliferation,” he said.

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the talks were entering a “very decisive period”.

“But we’re not at the endpoint. The basic points need to be translated into a comprehensive negotiating text and that’s not easy as negotiating in detail has created a few hindrances,” he said.

Iranian news agencies quoted Mr Zarif as saying it was worth missing the June 30 deadline by a few days to get a good deal.

“Political and technical differences remain,” Mr Zarif said before the meeting. “We’ve always tried to channel all our efforts into finalising a deal at the first possible opportunity, but it’s more important that we reach a good agreement.”

Earlier, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond also suggested the talks might go on beyond the deadline.

“There will need to be some more flexibility shown by our Iranian partners if we are going to reach a deal, but, look, this is a negotiation, we always expected it would go right to the line and maybe beyond the line,” Hammond said.

“So I think the serious negotiations are now getting under way and over the next week or so I hope we will start to see some real progress,” he said.

Asked if it would matter if the June 30 deadline slipped by a few days, he said: “Let’s see where we get to. We are pushing hard to get there.”

* Reuters and Bloomberg