BICOM

High-level American and Iranian delegations met yesterday in Geneva over brokering a long-term nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) before a 20 July deadline.

The United States delegation is being led by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and includes Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the lead US negotiator with Iran, whose delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. This week’s talks are widely viewed as a reflection of American determination to strike a deal over Tehran’s nuclear development.

Talks in Vienna last month between P5+1 representatives and Iranian officials ended without any tangible progress towards a long-term agreement over Iran’s nuclear development before a self-imposed deadline of 20 July. It is thought that wide gaps remain on a number of issues, including Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity, the Arak heavy water reactor and “possible military dimensions” to the Iranian programme.

US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said yesterday that the two delegations met in Geneva for over five hours and conducted “wide-ranging discussions” which will continue today. However, she said, “We are at a critical juncture in the talks” and that, “People need to make tough choices, but we are very focused on that July 20th time.” Meanwhile, Araqchi said that yesterday’s talks were “constructive” and that, “This hope still exists that we will be able to reach a final agreement by … 20 July.” However, he added if this isn’t possible, “then we have no choice but to extend” talks for a further six months.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz yesterday told the Herzliya Conference, a major policy gathering, that “no deal is better than a bad deal” with Iran. At the same conference, IDF Military Intelligence chief analyst Itay Brun said that, “It is very possible that Iran and the world powers … are moving toward the signing, sometime during the year, of a permanent nuclear deal.”