LONDON
— The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers
ended on Friday in Vienna, with Iranian and American officials saying
that progress was slow and difficult, with serious gaps between the two
sides on basic issues like the size of any nuclear enrichment capability Iran would be permitted to retain.
A
senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to
discuss diplomatic negotiations, said that Iran needed to be more
realistic in the talks. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi,
told Iranian news media that “there was no tangible progress in this
round of the talks”
The
American official agreed with Mr. Araghchi that “significant gaps”
remained after three days of talks. “Iran still has to make some hard
choices,” the official said. “We are concerned that progress is not
being made and that time is short.”
A
senior European diplomat said that “we had expected a little more
flexibility on their side.” Iranian officials, for their part, told the
IRNA news agency that “the West has to abandon its excessive demands,”
and that “we had expected the Western side to become more realistic, but
this doesn’t appear to be the case yet.”
The
two sides had set a July 20 deadline to resolve their differences,
although a temporary agreement late last year incorporated the
possibility of another six-month extension, which seems likely. The five
permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany,
want a deal that would ensure that Iran’s enrichment capability was so
constrained that it could not “break out” quickly to produce enough
fissile material for a bomb, whether made from uranium or plutonium.
They want intensive inspections and tough restrictions on enrichment to
ensure that Iran cannot secretly build a nuclear bomb.
Iran,
which has regularly denied that it desires a nuclear weapon, wants
economic sanctions against it lifted and recognition that it can
continue to enrich uranium for what it asserts are peaceful uses:
medicine and electricity. But the six powers want severe restrictions on
the number and type of centrifuges Iran can possess — an issue that one
American official characterized before this round of talks as “the
sticker-shock conversation.”
Mr.
Araghchi said that the two sides would have “one or two more rounds of
talks in June,” but no date for another round was set in Vienna.
Negotiators
have characterized the talks, which have included separate discussions
among technical experts, as cordial and workmanlike, with little
rhetorical speechmaking. They are carried out in English, so there is no
time wasted on translation. But the cordiality of the discussions has
not made an agreement that restores the Security Council’s trust in
Iran’s peaceful intentions and Iran’s trust in Western aims any easier.
Both
sides say they want to reach a deal, so negotiations are expected to
intensify as the July deadline approaches. Senior Western diplomats
familiar with the talks, speaking anonymously in accordance with
diplomatic practice, have said that they are skeptical of success by the
deadline, but that neither side wants a breakdown in negotiations —
Iran because it is being hit hard by the sanctions, and the six powers
because a failure of the talks might lead to a military strike on Iran
by Israel or the United States, which have vowed never to allow Iran to
obtain a nuclear weapon.Iranian
officials have spoken of their desire to expand their enrichment
capacity to 50,000 centrifuges of the most modern type, compared with
the 19,000 currently installed, some of them outmoded, of which 10,000
are operating.
Washington
has said that an enrichment capacity “greater than a few thousand
first-generation centrifuges would give Iran an unacceptably rapid
breakout capability,” according to Robert Einhorn, a former United
States negotiator, writing in The National Interest last week. Iran’s desire for 50,000 modern centrifuges, he wrote, “is a showstopper, and Iran must know that.” Breakout capability means the ability to quickly and quietly produce a bomb.
These talks began in February
after a deal late last year that suspended some sanctions and freed
some assets in return for Tehran’s agreement to sharply reduce its
stockpile of more highly enriched uranium that could be more quickly
turned into a weapon. That deal was meant to create space for these talks to produce a final agreement.
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