Diplomacy with Iran may have reached an inflection point in the long-standing crisis over its nuclear program on Sunday in Vienna, where foreign ministers from the world’s most powerful nations met to gauge Iran’s seriousness at the negotiating table.
US Secretary of State John Kerry held individual meetings with his counterparts from the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Union and, in a rare one-on-one exchange, Iran, at the Palais Coburg residence in the Austrian capital.
“We have some very significant gaps still, so we need to see if we can make some progress,” Kerry told the press, before entering consultations.
According to US diplomats, those gaps are numerous and are wider than many had expected the parties to be at this point, merely a week before the July 20 deadline for talks. Reflecting public statements, Iranian officials have privately told their Western counterparts that they seek to expand – not reduce – Iran’s uranium enrichment capability, after world powers have insisted just the opposite is required to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal with the international community.
“There is no question that we have heard about Iran’s aspirations for its nuclear program in very specific terms and very specific numbers. And that remains far from a significant reduction in their current program,” one senior American official told reporters here, calling Iran’s negotiating position “unworkable and inadequate.”
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