The US secretary of state arrived in Vienna last night as international nuclear negotiations with Iran entered their final stretch.
John Kerry’s presence is likely to mark the start of a last intensive push towards achieving an agreement by the Monday night deadline, in the expectation that both sides will reveal their final concessions only in the last few days or hours.
Mr Kerry was at talks in Paris with his French and Saudi Arabian counterparts, intended to maintain the support of both countries – among the most hawkish on Iran – for western negotiating strategy.
Meanwhile, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, complained that Iran had not been co-operating with its inquiry into evidence of past Iranian nuclear development. “I call upon Iran to increase its co-operation with the agency and to provide timely access to all relevant information, documentation, sites, material and personnel,” Mr Amano told the IAEA’s governing board, which comprises the organisation’s member states.
All sides have agreed the resolution of the IAEA’s inquiry into past weaponisation work will be achieved at some later date over the lifetime of a comprehensive deal, when it will be tied to the lifting of the last sanctions on the country.
– (Guardian service)