Iran and six world powers still have not reached a deal on Tehran's controversial nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.
"We will not rush, and we will not be rushed," Kerry told reporters at a press conference in Vienna, where negotiators are meeting to try and agree on limits to Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
"Some of the tough issues remain unresolved," he said. "But those decisions must be taken very soon."
If negotiators fail to reach a deal by 12 a.m. EST Thursday, the amount of time that the U.S. Congress can take to review any final accord will double to 60 days, which would delay the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Iran. A longer waiting period would also give opponents of the deal more time to marshal their arguments and win new allies, which could weaken the deal's overall odds of survival.
"We are not going to sit at the negotiating table forever," Kerry told reporters on Thursday. "But we should not get up and leave simply because the clock strikes midnight."
Kerry did not specify whether the deadline would be extended if negotiators fail to reach an agreement by midnight. The deadline has been extended several times in recent days.
Iran and the so-called P5+1 group -- the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members, plus Germany -- have been negotiating for months over the terms of a nuclear deal. The sides are still wrangling over the the pace and scope of sanctions relief to Iran, as well as how the deal will be monitored, Reuters reported earlier Thursday.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius
Federica Mogherini, foreign policy chief of the European Union, indicated in comments to CNN that the deadline still looms over the negotiations. "We are very close but if the important historical, political decisions are not made in the next hours, we won't (have) an agreement," she said. "That moment of truth will come extremely soon, next hours I think."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday the talks had entered their “final stages." But Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, like Kerry, said that negotiators were not rushing to meet a deadline. "We're working hard, but not rushed, to get the job done. Mark my words; you can't change horses in the middle of a stream," Zarif wrote on Twitter ahead of Kerry’s remarks.
In Washington, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the continuation of talks would not pose any problems for Congress.
"I'm very happy that we're not rushing to a place and taking shortcuts on the remaining issues that are left," Corker told reporters. "That is, to me, a very good thing."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the talks can continue "as long as there's tangible evidence that there's a constructive effort underway."
"The fact that we've been very clear about our expectations for a final agreement makes it unlikely that the talks will drag on for many more weeks," he told reporters in Washington. "But, again, I wouldn't speculate on the outcome."
Related
Before You Go
