Kerry: Difficult Issues Remain in Nuclear Talks
July 2, 2015Major powers and Iran are making progress in their talks on a nuclear agreement but some very difficult issues remain, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
“We have some very difficult issues, but we believe we are making progress and we are going to continue to work because of that,” Kerry said.
The sides on Tuesday agreed to extend the deadline to reach a final deal to July 7, after failing to reach agreements on key issues.
Shortly after the deadline was extended, President Barack Obama warned Iran he is still willing to walk away from a potential nuclear deal if Tehran doesn’t agree to a verifiable inspections process of its nuclear sites.
“There’s still some hard negotiations left to take place,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the Iranians to determine whether they meet that requirement – to be able to fairly and accurately and consistently assess whether they have foreclosed the possibility of attaining a nuclear weapon.”
“There has been a lot of talk on the other side by the Iranian negotiators about whether in fact they can abide by some of the terms that came up in Lausanne,” Obama said, referring to the framework deal reached on April 2. That agreement, he said, “if implemented and codified properly, would achieve my goal, which is Iran not attaining a nuclear weapon.”
“My hope is they can achieve an agreement,” Obama said. “If they cannot, that’s going to be a problem. Because I’ve said from the start, I will walk away from the negotiation if, in fact, it’s a bad deal.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani followed up Obama’s warning with a warning of his own, telling major powers that his country would resume its halted nuclear work if they went back on a proposed final deal.
“If we reach a deal, both sides should be committed to it,” Rouhani said.
“If the other side breaches the deal, we will go back to the old path, stronger than what they can imagine,” he stressed.
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