It now appears difficult to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal with the Iranian regime by a Nov. 24 deadline but it is not impossible, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser, Tony Blinken, told American lawmakers on Tuesday.
“Right now, I think it’s going to be difficult to get to where we want to go. It’s not impossible,” Blinken, who is U.S. President Barack Obama’s chosen deputy secretary of state, said at his nomination hearing for the diplomatic post.
Six major powers are in negotiations with Iran in an effort to reach an agreement under which Iran would agree to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions ahead of a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline.
Blinken put the onus on Tehran to achieve an agreement, which is being negotiated with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
“It (reaching a deal) depends entirely on whether Iran is willing to take the steps it must take to convince us, to convince our partners, that its program would be for entirely peaceful purposes,” he said. “As we speak, we’re not there.”
Many officials of the six world powers that have been negotiating with Iran predict that they will not complete all aspects of a comprehensive agreement by the Nov. 24 deadline. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Wednesday became the first top Western official to publicly acknowledge that the group may need more time for a deal.
If they fail to meet the cut-off date they may announce some kind of partial agreement. But they are also likely to seek time for further talks, officials say.
Meanwhile in Tehran, the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Ali Akbar Salehi, ruled out special inspections of the regime’s nuclear facilities.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a new quarterly report on November 7: “Iran has not provided any explanations” on two issues regarding the military dimension of its nuclear program that Tehran had undertaken to clarify by August 25.
Ambassador Laura Kennedy, the U.S. envoy to the Vienna-based IAEA, told reporters: “We’ve been disappointed in their failure thus far to constructively engage on this issue.”
Kennedy said she would convey their “concerns with Iran’s failure to engage substantively with the agency on the possible military dimensions issue” in a statement to the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors, which convenes on Thursday.
Western officials say Iran must improve cooperation with the long-running International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inquiry as part of a broader diplomatic settlement which Tehran and six world powers aim to reach by a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline.