French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned Thursday that Iranian regime may never be willing to completely give up its nuclear weapon-making capabilities, casting doubt on the chances of a final deal being struck with Tehran over its nuclear programme.
Under an agreement with six world powers reached in Geneva last month, the Iranian regime had agreed to suspend parts of its nuclear programme for six months in exchange for some sanctions relief.
Talks are due to begin again in the Swiss city on Thursday with the aim of establishing a detailed technical plan on how to put the deal into practice.
It is hoped that during the six-month freeze on the Iranian regime’s nuclear programme, a longer-term agreement can be negotiated to decisively end the standoff over the regime’s nuclear programme.
But Fabius told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that he had concerns over how far the Iranian regime would be willing to go towards curtailing its nuclear plans.
“It is unclear if the Iranians will accept to definitively abandon any capacity of getting a weapon or only agree to interrupt the nuclear programme,” he told the newspaper.
“What is at stake is to ensure that there is no breakout capacity,” Fabius said, referring to Iran’s possible ability to relaunch a weapons programme from dormant sites.
Thursday’s technical talks are expected to involve nuclear as well as sanctions experts from both sides and are due to continue into Friday.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
