As talks on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program is scheduled to continue next week, a senior U.S. official said on Friday he did not expect an agreement to be reached, Reuters reported.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran regime’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are to meet in Switzerland early next week.
Some officials involved in the diplomacy, including the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Federica Mogherini, have said in recent days that global powers and Tehran were “getting close” to an agreement.
In making the case for an agreement, the U.S. official described what he called four U.S. “bottom lines.”
According to the Reuters, these included preventing Iran from making weapons-grade plutonium at the Arak heavy-water reactor now being built and from enriching uranium at Fordow, an underground facility Tehran kept secret until Western officials revealed it in 2009.
They also include restricting uranium enrichment at Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz and requiring it to agree to a highly intrusive inspection regime designed to ensure Tehran does not establish new covert nuclear facilities.
“Without an agreement we don’t have any of this insight into Iran’s nuclear program,” the official said. “With an agreement, we have a significant amount of eyes into Iran’s program and a much better capacity to detect any potential covert effort to break out and pursue a weapon.”
The Wall Street Journal reported: “Obama administration officials briefed on the negotiations said the major issues that still need to be resolved include the size of Iran’s future capacity to produce nuclear fuel, the duration under which its capacity will be constrained, and the pace at which international sanctions against Tehran would be removed.”
“European and Iranian officials have suggested a final deal could allow Tehran to maintain around 6,500 centrifuge machines, which are used to enrich uranium into nuclear fuel.”
“U.S. officials wouldn’t confirm the number on Friday, but acknowledged Tehran would maintain a capacity. They also said constraints on Iran’s nuclear program would last into ‘double digits’’ of years, which analysts have interpreted to mean as little as a decade.”
The official sought to play down expectations of a deal being reached at next week’s talks in Montreux, Switzerland, which will include U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Munoz.