Iran, West struggle toward nuclear deal

 

Following (IraqiNews.com)—Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers remained bogged down Wednesday afternoon as senior Western and Iranian diplomats sought to make decisive progress on the outlines of a final deal in the coming hours.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin she still hoped to see an agreement reached on Wednesday after “a big part of negotiations” were completed. U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said earlier it was still possible to clear the remaining difficult technical issues.

However, with the foreign ministers of France, China and Russia leaving the talks over the last 24 hours and Tuesday night’s deadline to reach a political understanding passed, it was far from clear whether the two sides could quickly bridge the remaining differences.

An understanding on all key issues agreed to by March 31 was supposed to pave the way to complete a final, detailed nuclear agreement by June 30. However, for the third time in less than a year, the deadline was missed.

A nuclear deal would see Iran accept clear constraints on its ability to move to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of tight international sanctions.

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