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The fourth round of nuclear talks between six world powers and Iran came to an end on Friday, with both sides arguing that major hurdles remained ahead of the July 20th deadline for an accord.
Abbas Araqchi, the chief nuclear negotiator for Iran, said on state television that “no tangible progress” was made at the negotiations in Vienna as the gaps they had to overcome were “too huge”. However, he added that Tehran was “determined” to continue the negotiations in the upcoming months. No press conference was held, nor was a statement issued after the three-day meeting between Iran and the “P5+1”, the five permanent Security Council members and Germany, ended.
Michael Mann, spokesman for lead negotiator Catherine Ashton and EU foreign policy chief, warned the press against reading too much into the fact that there was no press conference or joint statement after the meeting.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. That’s why we don’t want to break things down and give a snapshot of where we are after every session. We have had three days of hard work. As we have said, the negotiations are complex and detailed. We are trying to formulate an agreement”, Mann said. Both Iran and the US said that both sides were having trouble seeing eye to eye. The next round of talks will happen in June; the EU is yet to set a date for the talks.
Negotiators have been trying to agree on a complex and long-term deal which would curb Iran’s nuclear program. As a part of the agreement, the sanctions on Iran will be lifted before the interim agreement struck on November ends on July 20th. Failure to do so could have calamitous effects, and potentially spark conflict, with neither Washington nor Israel not ruling out military action, and create an arms race.