The Deadline is Not the Day of Judgment

Rooz Online

As a new round of nuclear talks get underway between Iran and the P5+1 group of world major powers in New York, predictions and opinions about the outcome range from a possible breakthrough to a continuation of the stalemate.

In his latest remarks, foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told TV reporters that Iran was in talks with the US government and added, “If president Barack Obama gives us his word, we will accept and respect it.” He continued, “Just as we do not accept them to present impossible demands from us, we too will not request impossible demands from them.”

Elsewhere, speaking to his Norwegian counterpart, Zarif said, “a resolution was achievable by the agreed deadline if the P5+1 powers were ready to make the hard decision.”

The latest round of talks in New York began on Friday and their purpose is to finally settle Iran’s nuclear dossier and lift all the sanctions against the Islamic republic. This means dealing with such issues as the level of enriched uranium, the number of centrifuges the fate of the Arak heavy water reactor and the lifting of all sanctions, issues that have stalled the talks for months.

In a related development, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Aragchi who is also on the negotiation team, told the Persian service of the BBC, “Differences exist, but the atmosphere (of the talks) is good and constructive. All sides have the necessary determination and seriousness, which obviously creates optimism that the talks will progress. But, to make actual progress in the content of the talks depends on how the discussions proceed and how the requirements of the parties are met.”

Asked about the possibility of extending the talks beyond the current deadline of November 24th, Aragchi said, “What I am saying is that November 24th is not Judgment Day, but that we must utilize all our energy to reach an agreement by then.”

During his fourth press interview on August 30, president Hassan Rouhani had said, “If the other side has the intention, we hope to reach an agreement by the deadline. We believe yesterday’s sanctions, which they interpret are not new, were not a good step and they do not hurt the essence of the talks. But in talks, one basis is trust and sincerity. Such acts harm the direction of trust and sincerity. We shall continue the talks.”

Two weeks ago, Aragchi, a senior member of Iran’s negotiation team had told Lebanese al-Mayadeen television, “A relatively wide gap remained between the positions of the two sides,” while reiterating that Iran would not leave the talks.

During his latest interview with the BBC, Aragchi repeated his earlier call that if the talks failed, the alternative option is “very frightening” and added, “let us not even think about it because it can become a new source of tension in the region.”

Another member of Iran’s team, Majid Takhtravanchi also termed the differences between the two sides as “serious.” He too said if the other side had good intentions, Iran too would continue its efforts to reach an agreement by November 24. “At the Geneva and Vienna talks we did not negotiate about the contents of the issues, but talked about issues that if agreed upon would have a deep effect on reaching the final agreement,” he added. He said that during the last two rounds the “positions of the two sides did not narrow and differences over the serious issues remained.”

Last week, an Iranian website Iran Hastei (Nuclear Iran) had quoted “an expert in Tehran” to have said that “the acceptance of 190,000 centrifuges at the end of the talks, non-inclusion of military and missile issues, keeping the nature of the Arak heavy water reactor, lifting of all sanctions after a final agreement and the non-closing of any Iranian nuclear facilities” were among the red lines that the country’s negotiation team had from which it had no right to “deviate.” According to the site, these red lines had been developed by the government and had been communicated to the Iranian team.

Earlier, ayatollah Khamenei had also mentioned “enrichment capacity, research and development, and the Fardo facility” to be important issues in the talks. The article on the website concluded that “if no fundamental progress was made in New York, it would be very difficult to reach an agreement by November 24th.”