Iran nuclear talks enter final push as deadline looms

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif before talks in Vienna started on July 3, 2014. Iran and the six world powers are aiming for a deal before July 20 as they seek to end their long-running Show more

VIENNA // Iran’s nuclear talks with the six world powers entered the decisive endgame on Thursday – its sixth and final round of negotiations which could go right down to a July 20 deadline for a deal.

The cost of failure could be high. If diplomacy falls short, the risk of Israeli air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites could rise, and with it the threat of a wider Middle East war.

The accord being sought by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, would finally ease fears of Tehran obtaining nuclear weapons and silence talk of war.

In exchange, punishing sanctions on the Islamic republic would be lifted.

With Sunni Islamic insurgents overrunning large parts of Iraq, and Syria in chaos from three years of civil war, a deal could help Tehran and the West normalise relations at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.

Officials from China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US – the so-called P5+1 – want Iran to drastically reduce its nuclear activities in order to render any Iranian drive to assemble an atomic bomb all but impossible.

This would include Iran slashing its capacities to enrich uranium, a process that produces nuclear fuel but also, at high purities, the core of a nuclear weapon.

In itself, that would represent a concession to Iran, which is already defying UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to suspend all enrichment.

But Iran insists it has made too many advances in uranium enrichment to turn the clock back and that it needs to expand its programme in order to fuel a future wave of power reactors.

In theory, the July 20 deadline could be extended by up to six months, and many analysts believe this is already being negotiated.

But US president Barack Obama, facing midterm elections in November, is wary of doing anything that could be construed by Republicans as giving Iran more time to get closer to having the bomb.

This is the long-standing accusation of Israel, the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear-armed state which – together with Washington – has not ruled out military action.

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief said he was “not aware” that an extension was being discussed.

“The atmosphere is as always very workman-like ... [Negotiators] come here with determination to push the process forward and reach a deal by July 20,” he said.

* Agence France-Presse, additional reporting from Reuters