Despite nearly a year of negotiations, the Iranian regime and six world powers are unlikely to meet a November 24 deadline to reach a final deal to lift international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, officials say.
Western told Reuters the two sides would probably settle for another interim agreement that builds on the limited sanctions relief agreed a year ago as they hammer away at their deep disagreements in the coming months.
The sticking points remaining are how many uranium enrichment centrifuges Iran can have and the speed of lifting sanctions, mainly on oil exports and the banking and insurance sectors.
“We could see the outline of a final deal emerging by November 24 but probably not the deal itself,” a Western official said.
One senior Western diplomat close to the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity, insisted that the six powers were still doing everything possible to get a solid, comprehensive agreement this month as planned.
One Western diplomat said it remained unclear whether the Iranian negotiating team, led by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his deputy Abbas Araqchi, had a mandate to make the kinds of compromises needed for a deal.
“We just don’t know if (Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) will let them reach the kind of deal we want,” the diplomat said.
The United States, France, Britain and Germany would like the number of centrifuges to be in the low thousands, while Tehran wants tens of thousands in operation. It now has about 19,000 installed and around 10,000 in operation.
