Iran Says Inspectors May Access Suspect Nuclear Site, Still 'No Significant Progress' in Vienna Negotiations
World powers and Iran have still made no real progress in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program and it looks "physically impossible" to strike a comprehensive deal by Monday's deadline, a European source said Saturday.
The source close to the negotiations said "no significant progress" has been achieved until now and "there is even a chance that we will not" reach an agreement by Monday's deadline.
"For us to reach an agreement, the Iranians will have to move in a substantial way," the source told journalists on condition of anonymity.
At any rate, "the goal is to reach a precise agreement... At this stage the idea that we can wrap up the whole thing (by Monday) is physically impossible," the source said.
"Even if we reach a political agreement, the technical annexes will not be ready. Now in our mind nothing will be agreed until everything is agreed, including the annexes," the source said.
The European source suggested that an eventual political agreement would necessarily be followed by detailed and difficult negotiations.
Earlier on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, their first direct talks of the day, a U.S. official said, two days ahead of the deadline for a nuclear deal.
"Secretary Kerry will meet with (former EU foreign policy chief Catherine) Ashton and Foreign Minister Zarif this afternoon," the official said.
Kerry said meanwhile as he met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that there were still "serious gaps" in the nuclear negotiations, two days before a deadline for a deal.
"We're working hard," Kerry said, "and we hope we're making careful progress, but we have big gaps, we still have some serious gaps, which we’re working to close."
He added he would "not say anything substantive about the discussions while they're going on, but a lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people."
Moreover, Steinmeier said that the outcome of Iran's nuclear talks with six world powers was "completely open".
Despite huge gaps in the negotiations, "we have never been closer in more than 10 years," Steinmeier said as he joined the talks in Vienna.
"If Iran is ready to take this opportunity then movement is possible ... Whether we can get a result is right now completely open," he said.
"We will do whatever we can and if we can't then we will leave ourselves open to the accusation that we have missed out on something that could have resolved this standoff," Steinmeier added.
At stake in the Austrian capital Vienna is a historic deal in which Iran would curb its nuclear activities in exchange for broad relief from years of heavy international economic sanctions.
It could end a 12-year standoff with the West that has even raised the threat of Israeli military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Steinmeier was due to be briefed by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has met with his Iranian counterpart here three times since Thursday.
Iranian sources said Zarif was also due to meet the German top diplomat.
Besides Iran, Germany and the United States, the talks involve Russia, China, France and Britain.
Later on Saturday, Tehran is ready to allow nuclear inspectors access to its Marivan military site, an Iranian official said, a facility long suspected of being used to develop explosive weapons.
The declaration comes as Iran and six world powers hold talks in Vienna to reach a lasting agreement on Tehran's disputed nuclear program before November 24.
Such a deal, after 12 years of rising tensions, is aimed at easing fears that Tehran will develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities -- an ambition the Islamic republic has always fiercely denied.
The Marivan site, close to the Iraqi border, was mentioned in a 2011 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.
The UN agency suggested at the time that "large scale high explosive experiments" may have been carried out at the complex.
Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany have been locked in talks with Iran since February after an interim accord gave it some relief from economic sanctions in return for nuclear curbs.
"We are ready to allow the IAEA controlled access to the Marivan site," Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted as saying by the IRNA news agency.
He said the IAEA's view of Marivan was based on "false" information.
IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor said the watchdog "will discuss the offer" with Tehran.
"The situation regarding a visit to the Marivan region is not as simple as that conveyed by Iran," she told AFP.
As well as Marivan, IAEA inspectors are also interested in the Parchin military base, where they suspect tests that could be applied to a potential nuclear site have been carried out.
Iran has so far denied access to Parchin.
Source: Agence France Presse
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