LAUSANNE - Iran’s president on Thursday appealed to the leaders of Britain, France and Russia to seize an “exceptional opportunity” to strike a nuclear deal, as negotiators raced against the clock in Switzerland.
“We are acting in the national and international interest and we should not lose this exceptional opportunity,” Hassan Rouhani told British Prime Minister David Cameron by phone, the presidency said.
Rouhani, whose 2013 election led to the biggest effort in years to end the decade-old standoff over Iran’s nuclear activities, also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and France’s Francois Hollande.
“Hope was expressed for success at the new round of talks in Lausanne,” the Kremlin said in a statement, while noting with “satisfaction the progress” made over previous weeks of talks.
Hollande, “while insisting on Iran’s legitimate right to use peaceful nuclear power, insisted on the need to work towards a lasting, robust and verifiable agreement,” the French presidency said.
But highlighting the difficulties of talks that resumed in Switzerland Thursday between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Rouhani also said Iran wants all sanctions lifted.
“The peaceful character of (Iran’s) nuclear activities and the necessity to annul all the unjust sanctions can lead us to a final deal,” Rouhani’s office quoted him as telling Cameron.
The six powers negotiating with Iran - the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany - are however insisting that sanctions will only be suspended, not lifted.
This, they say, is to enable the sanctions to be “snapped back” if Iran violates the deal.
The suspension will also be staggered over a number of years and tied to certain actions by Iran.
Kerry’s talks in Lausanne with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and officials from the six powers are aimed at agreeing the outlines of a nuclear deal by March 31 after two missed deadlines in 2014.
The two men met for more than four hours on Thursday, and their political directors were planning to resume talks later in the evening.
Such a deal, meant to be finalised by June 30, would see Iran downsize its nuclear programme to ensure that any covert dash for an atomic weapon would be all but impossible.
Kerry is under severe pressure from the US Congress to return from Lausanne with something concrete but it is unclear how detailed any “framework” accord will be, or even whether it will be a written document.
Both Iran and France, whose hawkish Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius plans to join the talks on Saturday, have criticised the two-step process, with France’s US ambassador calling it a “bad tactic”.
“We very much believe that we can get this done by (March) 31,” a senior State Department official said however.
“We can see a path forward here to get to an agreement, we can see what that path might look like,” the official told reporters, cautioning however that this “doesn’t mean we’ll get there”.
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told AFP in an interview in Lausanne that he was “on the whole optimistic” about the talks.
But he warned “there are those who have an interest in more troubles and not dealing with this question have not been inactive.
They are trying to make sure there is no deal.
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There were concerns however that a crisis in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia Wednesday launched air strikes against Shiite rebels who have seized control of the capital, could sour the atmosphere in Lausanne.
Zarif on Thursday condemned the military action, which are being supported by the US, saying they would lead only to greater loss of life.
“Military action from outside of Yemen against its territorial integrity and its people will have no other result than more bloodshed and more deaths,” he told the Iranian-owned Al-Alam television channel.
Kerry though “commended the work of the coalition taking military action against the Huthis” and noted Washington’s support “including intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, and advisory and logistical support,” the State Department said.
A US official insisted that the air strikes would have “no impact” on the nuclear talks.
“We have always been clear that the P5+1 negotiations are solely focused on the nuclear issue,” the official said.
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