European foreign ministers urged the Iranian regime on Monday to stand by the framework nuclear deal reached in April or risk scuttling a historic final agreement.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called on Tehran to show greater flexibility in its talks with six world powers.
Mr. Hammond, his French and German colleagues and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini were meeting the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, on Monday afternoon in Luxembourg following a gathering of EU foreign ministers.
“There will need to be some more flexibility shown by our Iranian partners if we are going to reach a deal,” Mr. Hammond said.
“We always expected it would go right to the line and maybe beyond the line. So I think the serious negotiation is now getting under way and over the next week or so I hope that we will start to see some real progress.”
Officials on both sides have pointed to several still-open issues in the way of a deal, including what access United Nations atomic agency inspectors will have to Iranian military sites under a deal and the timing of sanctions relief.
France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday it was unclear whether an international deal could be reached on Iran’s nuclear program by a June 30th deadline.
“We need to be extremely firm, at the stage where we are now, things are still not clear,” Mr Fabius said.
“Towards the end of next week the ministers will go [to the talks], so I’d like to have an explanation and conversation to see where the Iranians are,” Mr Fabius told reporters in Cairo on Saturday, on the first day of the two-day Middle East visit.
The Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) on Sunday voted to ban international nuclear inspectors from having access to Iran’s military sites and scientists as part of any future deal with world powers over its nuclear program.
The bill was approved by 199 of the 213 Majlis deputies who were present.
The bill also stipulates that all international sanctions against the regime must be lifted as part of any nuclear agreement that is reached with the world powers.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged Iran not to back away from what it agreed to after days of tense late-night negotiations in Lausanne on April 2.
He said he hoped “the Iranian side sticks closely to the Lausanne key points in its negotiating strategy and doesn’t add anything or drop anything from what was agreed there.”
“I think it’s possible” to reach a deal, he told reporters. “But it requires Iran to act constructively and not now try evasive action in the last few meters.”
