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Kerry Renews Effort to Reach Preliminary Nuclear Deal With Iran - New York Times




Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Ruben Sprich/Reuters

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry renewed his push on Wednesday to secure a preliminary accord that would limit Iran’s nuclear program, a day after negotiators extended the March 31 deadline.


With the diplomacy at a pivotal point, President Obama convened a teleconference on Tuesday night with Mr. Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz and other top members of the administration to review the status of the negotiations.


As the talks resumed here on Wednesday, an initial accord was potentially within reach but there was still much to work out. Nobody was ruling out the possibility that the negotiations — which also involve Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — might be extended into the week.


“Fingers crossed, and we hope to get there during the course of the day,” Philip Hammond, Britain’s foreign secretary, told reporters.



“I think we have a broad framework of understanding, but there are still some key issues that have to be worked through,” Mr. Hammond added. “Some of them are quite detailed and technical, so there is still quite a lot of work to do; but we are on it now and we’ll keep going at it.”





OPEN Graphic



Graphic: A Simple Guide to the Nuclear Negotiations With Iran


Before the talks were extended, the Obama administration had been struggling to meet what was essentially a self-imposed deadline for an initial accord that would outline the main elements of an agreement.


The administration’s calculation is that a preliminary accord would lay the foundation for a comprehensive agreement to be completed by the end of June.


It would also, the White House hopes, let the administration make a stronger case against American lawmakers who have been pressing for additional economic sanctions on Iran.


But lawmakers are not scheduled to return from their recess until mid-April. The Obama administration’s hopes of winning its battle with Congress will depend more on what concrete agreements are reached here, and what issues are put off for further talks with the Iranians, than on whether a preliminary accord is settled on Wednesday or over the next week or two.


Apart from the complexity of the nuclear issues, the talks have been complicated by clashing agendas for the United States and Iran.


The Obama administration, for example, has been eager to impose specific limits on Iran’s nuclear program as soon as possible to buttress its argument to Congress. It also wants any sanctions relief to be carried out in phases to help ensure that Iran meets its obligations. But Iran’s negotiators have demanded that sanctions relief be provided up front, and they have resisted the formalization of stringent limits in a preliminary accord.



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As Iran and world powers including the United States try to reach a deal on nuclear controls in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Iranians from all walks of life are watching and hoping for a new start.




OPEN Photographs



On Wednesday morning, Mr. Kerry met with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, in a negotiating session that also included their British and German counterparts. The French, Russia and Chinese foreign ministers have left the now prolonged negotiations, and their nations were represented by lower-ranking officials.


It was the seventh straight day that Mr. Kerry had met with Mr. Zarif during the current negotiating round. Mr. Moniz also met on Wednesday morning with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization.


Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, told reporters on Tuesday that a deal was virtually in hand and that a general understanding had been reached on “all key aspects.”


But Mr. Lavrov made similarly upbeat comments on Monday before the State Department announced that the talks had been extended and that “several difficult issues” remained.


In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the negotiations and the possibility of a deal “unconscionable” in light of Iran’s continuing activities in the Middle East and statements against Israel.


Citing an Iranian general who was quoted on Tuesday as having said that Iran’s commitment to Israel’s destruction was “nonnegotiable,” Mr. Netanyahu said, “Evidently, giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable — this is unconscionable.”


Mr. Netanyahu met Wednesday afternoon with Speaker John A. Boehner, the Ohio Republican who organized the Israeli prime minister’s speech against a possible nuclear deal in Congress last month.



Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.











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