E.U. – Iran expected to issue joint statement on nuclear talks

 

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) — Officials of the European Union and Iran were expected to read a joint statement about progress toward a nuclear agreement around 1 p.m. E.D.T., officials in Lausanne said Thursday, though it was unclear if tangible details would be released.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, was expected to hold a news conference shortly afterward, followed by a separate news conference by Secretary of State John Kerry, at which he was expected to disclose more specifics about any potential accord.

While members of the news media were being summoned for the briefings, the talks were still going on behind closed doors. Just minutes before the scheduled briefings, Mr. Zarif sent out a Twitter message saying the negotiators had “found solutions” and were, “Ready to start drafting immediately.” Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, sent a similar tweet.

Mr. Zarif had said previously that he and Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, would appear together to make ageneral statement on the talks.

But Obama administration officials have insisted that the current round of talks here produce more than a general understanding. They want a “quantitative dimension” — that is, specific limits on Iran’s nuclear program that the White House can cite to push back against congressional moves for additional sanctions.

Washington and Tehran also differ over the economic sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program. The United States wants to lift the sanctions in steps, tied to Iran’s compliance with the agreement. But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Al Khamenei, who has the last word on any deal, has insisted that all the sanctions be lifted when the final accord is signed.

With their dueling news conferences, it appeared that Mr. Zarif and Mr. Kerry would try to tailor the perceptions of the final agreement to meet those specific political imperatives, though it was not clear how they would respond to each other’s remarks. /END/