LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Iran and the United States broke off nuclear negotiations ahead of schedule Friday, setting up make-or-break talks this week for a deal providing long-term assurance to the world that the Iranians cannot develop nuclear weapons.
The session in the Swiss city of Lausanne was interrupted on its sixth day, so members of the Iranian delegation could attend the funeral of their president’s mother.
Top Russian negotiator Sergey Ryabkov told The Associated Press that while some disputes remain, Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers negotiating the deal are expected to “finish their main work” before the talks resume next week.
Ryabkov’s comments were consistent with those of other officials who told the AP earlier that Iran and the U.S. are drafting elements of a deal that commits the Iranians to a 40 percent cut in the number of machines they could use to make an atomic bomb. In return, Iran would get quick relief from some crippling economic sanctions and a partial lift of a UN embargo on conventional arms. The sides ultimately want to reach a full agreement by June 30.
But both Tehran and Washington face pressure to iron out the main contours of a deal by this month’s end, with Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and U.S. President Barack Obama having spoken against extending negotiations for the third time. Iran says the program’s aims are for energy, medical and research purposes, but much of the world believes it harbors nuclear weapons ambitions.
The U.S. is determined to maintain unity among its partners. But France, which raised last minute objections to an interim agreement reached with Iran in 2013, could threaten a deal again. It is particularly opposed to providing Iran with quick relief from international sanctions and is trying to secure a longer timeframe for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity.
The stakes are high. Washington has yet to say what it will do if talks miss the March 25 deadline. And the Obama administration has warned that a diplomatic failure could lead to an ever-tougher dilemma: Whether to launch a military attack on Iran or allow it to reach nuclear-weapons capacity.
A more immediate challenge may be intervention from Congress. If American lawmakers pass new economic sanctions on Iran, the Islamic Republic could respond by busting through the interim limits on its nuclear program it agreed to 16 months ago. Thus far it has stuck to that agreement, according to a confidential UN nuclear agency report issued Friday and shared with the AP.
