NEW YORK // US secretary of state John Kerry was expected to meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on the sidelines of a UN conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, their first talks since agreeing on the framework for a final deal over Iran’s nuclear programme.
With a June 30 deadline looming, the diplomats will discuss how to move the negotiations forward as six world powers, led by the United States, and Iran race to finalise an accord that would curb Tehran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions.
Mr Kerry and Mr Zarif were scheduled to meet at 4.15pm local time in New York, according to the state department. Mr Kerry was also to meet the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan ahead of the talks with Mr Zarif.
In the tentative outline announced on April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran agreed to the broad components of a deal, though the pace of sanctions relief is the key sticking point. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has insisted that all sanctions must be lifted upon completion of a final deal. American and European officials say the framework agreement mandates that sanctions be lifted stages as the UN nuclear watchdog verifies that Iran is meeting its commitments.
Along with the time frame for sanctions relief, the two sides have yet to hammer out a detailed agreement on Iran’s nuclear research and development programme, which Tehran maintains is only for peaceful purposes; the terms of the IAEA’s monitoring of the programme and access to military sites; and the size and enrichment levels of uranium stockpiles Iran would be allowed to maintain.
Mr Zarif addressed the 190 signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at the UN General Assembly earlier on Monday on behalf of the non-aligned countries that have ratified the 1970 treaty.
He said there should be no limits on transfers of peaceful nuclear technology or know-how between other treaty states as the pact itself does not ban such transfers.
Mr Zarif also demanded that countries possessing nuclear weapons scrap any plans to modernise or extend the life of their atomic arsenals, while branding Israel a threat to the region due to its presumed nuclear stockpile.
He said non-aligned states viewed Israel’s assumed nuclear weapons as “a serious and continuing threat to the security of neighboring and other states, and condemned Israel for continuing to develop and stockpile nuclear arsenals.”
The talks on Iran’s nuclear programme are likely to be complicated this week as a bill unanimously backed by the US senate’s foreign relations committee comes to the congress floor for a debate and possible vote.
The proposed law would give congress a role in reviewing the final accord before it is signed and possibly even the power to reject it. The White House has said it would veto any new sanctions passed by congress ahead of the June 30 deadline, but earlier this month signalled it would not fight a compromise bill that gives legislators a voice in the talks that they have long demanded.
The bill that emerged from the senate committee has bipartisan backing and would prevent President Barack Obama from waiving congressional sanctions for 30 days while legislators debate the deal.
But even this limited oversight role for congress has been put in jeopardy by hawkish Republicans – many of whom are running for president in the 2016 elections – who have vowed to add a number of amendments that would likely end Democratic support and allow Mr Obama to successfully veto the bill.
Florida senator Marco Rubio plans to add an amendment that would force the White House to certify that Iran has publicly accepted Israel’s right to exist. Other amendments would force certifications that Iran ends its support for proxy militant groups, release US citizens imprisoned by Tehran and give congress the authority to approve or sink the deal.
In a rare political alignment with the US administration, the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC is opposing the inclusion of the amendments. Republican critics of the nuclear talks have also warned against the addition of unrealistic and politically motivated amendments. “Anybody who monkeys with this bill is going to run into a buzz saw,” said senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
If a deal is agreed upon by July, Mr Obama can use his executive legal powers to temporarily waive US sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme, while the EU and UN can lift international sanctions. Only congress can permanently end US sanctions.
tkhan@thenational.ae
With additional reporting by Reuters
