Iran’s lead negotiator: ‘We have never been closer to a lasting outcome’
, Source
VIENNA — Iran’s foreign minister released a video message Friday as nuclear talks were nearing an end, saying an agreement is at hand and can be reached if the United States and its partners choose cooperation over coercion.
“At this 11th hour, despite some differences that remain, we have never been closer to a lasting outcome,” said Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat and lead negotiator. “But there is no guarantee. Getting to yes requires the courage to compromise, the self-confidence to be flexible.”
Zarif, standing on the balcony of the Coburg Palace, where the talks are underway here, spoke in English as music played softly in the background.
Delivered on YouTube, his words were apparently an appeal to public and political opinion in the United States, and in the five countries that are its negotiating partners.
“Some stubbornly believe that military and economic coercion can ensure submission,” he said. “I see hope, because I see the emergence of reason over illusion.”
Zarif’s video comes as more than a year and a half of talks are culminating in a frenzied round of sessions aimed at getting Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Zarif and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has been here for a week, met twice Friday and plan to keep working through to weekend to meet a Tuesday deadline.
Foreign ministers from the other countries on the U.S. side of the table — Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany — are expected to return to Vienna on Sunday to make final decisions on a deal.
“We’re really in the endgame of all this,” said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the confidential talks. “We’re certainly making progress, there’s no doubt about that. But there are still big issues not resolved, that’s why people are burning the midnight oil.”
The official said that if negotiators can agree to closely follow principles set out in an interim accord adopted in early April, they will have a deal. But if the “right choices” aren’t made, he added, the United States is “more than comfortable stepping away.”
