An Iranian official has said reaching a deal with the West over its nuclear program by tomorrow is ‘impossible,’ reported the Daily Mail Sunday.
The official said the discussion “may soon have to shift from trying to reach an agreement to extending negotiations past tomorrow’s deadline for the end of this round of negotiations,” the British website reported.
A day before the self-imposed deadline for the talks on Iran’s nuclear program, a source close to the Iranian negotiating team in Vienna dismissed western media reports about attainment of a comprehensive agreement with the P5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).
“Consultations are still underway and no agreement has been achieved so far,” the source told Fars News Agency on Sunday.
Some western media reported that Iran and the six world powers have reached final agreement, and will publicize their achievement on Monday.
The source added that there has been no discussion yet on extending the nuclear talks past a their Monday deadline.
Earlier Sunday, another source privy to the talks told Fars he was pessimistic about attainment of a final deal by Monday. “Given the limited time left (until November 24), reaching a comprehensive agreement seems unlikely,” the source explained.
“If we don’t reach an understanding on Sunday night and the prospects are not bright, we will discuss the possibility for extending (the deadline mentioned in) the Geneva agreement… by 6 to 12 months,” he said.
Iran and the six major world powers had previously held 9 rounds of nuclear negotiations after inking an interim agreement in Geneva on November 24, 2013.
The ninth round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 included two days of trilateral talks among Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU Chief negotiator Catherine Ashton, as well as an hour-long multilateral meeting between the Iranian and P5+1 top negotiators in the Omani capital Muscat on November 11, without any tangible results.