"US See a Path Agreement by End of March": Diplomatic Source

Thu Mar 26, 2015 18:04:16

U.S. officials say the March 31 deadline is achievable but remains uncertain. En route to Switzerland with Kerry on Wednesday, one official said the American side "can see a path forward to get to agreement" by the end of March as the last round of talks produced more progress than many previous rounds.

Political and technical talks are still being held in a meeting between Zarif- Kerry and Salehi-Moniz.

Lausanne 2 talks started between Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry in the Swiss town of Lausanne on Thursday morning.This is the first round of talks in negotiations called Lausanne 2 between the two foreign ministers.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Chief of Iran Atomic Energy Organization Ali-Akbar Salehi, and US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz continue their talks in Lausanne, Switzerland on Thursday morning.Lausanne 2 talks started at 10 (local time) in Lausanne.

After a while, the meeting was held in three separate sessions, and the deputies to foreign ministers ended their meeting a few minutes ago, IRNA reports.

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi

Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, deputies to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi, US Assistant Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and EU Foreign Policy Deputy Chief Helga Schmidt were present in the meeting.This round of talks is scheduled to end on Saturday.

Zarif and his negotiating team had continued their intense marathon talks with the American side in Lausanne the previous week when the top Iranian diplomat also took some time to meet one-on-one in the Belgian capital of Brussels with the European foreign ministers of the P5+1 group - Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, Philip Hammond of Britain and France’s Laurent Fabius. Zarif also sad down with EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.

Verbal Deal

Meanwhile NY Times reports that nuclear deal with Iran might be verbal.Despite recent reports of progress in talks on the Iranian nuclear program, it remains unclear what is really happening behind closed doors, and a report in The New York Times said that even if an agreement is reached by the deadline, it might remain a verbal one, without anything down on paper and signed, “Israel hayom” quoted from new York times.

According to the report, which quoted Western diplomats involved in the talks, in recent weeks Iran has balked at any binding agreement, opting for a general declaration about understandings being reached, only after which would a formal deal be signed in June.

The Times noted that such a scenario would comprise a political challenge for the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, already under pressure to present the details of the incipient deal to Congress. Only last week, a senior American official said that the framework agreement would have to include a real "quantifiable dimension," not mere declarations. But Iran refuses to go into detail, at least for now.

Negotiators at Iran Talks Said to Aim for March 29 Agreement.Reaching an understanding by Sunday is a best-case scenario and the sides may be forced to go until March 31, according to three European and U.S. officials, who asked not to be named in line with diplomatic rules. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is provisionally scheduled to attend an event with President Barack Obama and Senate leaders on March 30, Bloomberg reports.

Kerry resumed talks on Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to join them from March 27 to 29. Top diplomats from China, France, Germany, and the U.K may also attend according to Bloomberg.

With the clock ticking, Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and their teams huddled Thursday in the Swiss resort town of Lausanne on Lake Geneva trying to overcome still significant gaps after nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, AP reported.

U.S. officials say the March 31 deadline is achievable but remains uncertain. En route to Switzerland with Kerry on Wednesday, one official said the American side "can see a path forward to get to agreement" by the end of March as the last round of talks produced more progress than many previous rounds. The official was not authorized to discuss the talks by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

At the opening session of Thursday's talks neither Kerry nor Zarif responded to reporters' questions about whether the situation in Yemen would be discussed.

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