U.S., Iran cite progress in nuke talks, though deal is unclear

With 10 days to a nuclear deal deadline, top U.S and Iranian officials spoke Saturday of making substantial headway, and Iran’s president proclaimed that agreement was within reach. But America’s top diplomat said it was up to Tehran to make the decisions needed to get there.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said “achieving a deal is possible” by a March 31 target date for a preliminary accord that is meant to lead to a final deal by the end of June. It would crimp Tehran’s nuclear programs in exchange for sanctions relief.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was more circumspect, as he spoke to reporters after six days of negotiations in Lausanne. The talks, made “substantial progress,” he said, but “important gaps remain.

“We have an opportunity to get this right,” Kerry said, as he urged Iran to make “fundamental decisions” that prove to the world it has no interest in atomic weapons.

But in a rebuff of President Barack Obama’s latest attempt at outreach, Iran’s supreme leader warned against expectations that even a done deal would end the chill between the two nations.

The U.S. thawed its 30-year freeze on talking to Tehran — in place since the Iranian revolution and siege of the American Embassy — in 2009 and joined other nations at the nuclear negotiating table. That was followed by a series of secret U.S.-Iran nuclear meetings starting in 2012, which led to a 15-minute telephone conversation two years ago between Obama and Rouhani and the now-routine meetings between Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Obama, in a message to Iranians celebrating the Persian new year last week, suggested that success at the talks could build on trust, proclaiming it was up to both nations “to seize this moment and the possibilities that can bloom.”

But Ayatollah Ali Kamenei gave Obama the cold shoulder. “Negotiations with America are solely on the nuclear issue and nothing else,” he told a crowd in northeastern Iran.

In a reflection of the delicate state of negotiations, other officials differed on how close the sides were to a deal.

Top Russian negotiator Sergey Ryabkov and Iran’s atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi said in recent days that technical work was nearly done. But French officials insisted the sides were far from any agreement.

Kerry departed later Saturday to meet with European allies in London, in part to ensure unity, before returning to Washington. Kerry said the U.S. and its five negotiating partners — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — are “united in our goal, our approach, our resolve and our determination.”

But France, which raised last-minute objections to an interim agreement reached with Iran in 2013, could threaten a deal again. It is particularly opposed to providing Iran with quick relief from international sanctions and wants a longer timeframe for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity.