Vienna--Washington and Tehran have set the stage for a heated last weekend of nuclear talks, with Iran's leader sticking to tough "red lines" and US Secretary of State John Kerry warning failure remains possible.
Whether or not Iran can satisfy the world that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful "will be determined in the last days, by whether or not the outstanding issues that we've been very clear about are in fact addressed," Kerry said Wednesday.
"If they are not addressed there won't be a deal," said Kerry, who is due to leave on Friday for Vienna. His Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif is expected Saturday in the Austrian capital, state media reported.
Iran and the "P5+1" -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- aim by June 30 to finalise a historic agreement definitively putting an Iranian nuclear bomb out of reach.
Several officials have said that the talks may be extended, but only by a few days.
Iran, which has engaged in something of a rapprochement with the West since the election of President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, denies wanting nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful.
In April, Iran and the six powers agreed the main outlines of the deal in bruising talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. After two missed deadlines, this built on an interim deal struck in November 2013 in Geneva.
Under the Lausanne framework, Iran will downsize its nuclear activities by slashing the number of centrifuges enriching uranium, which can be used in nuclear power but also for a bomb when highly purified.
In return, UN and Western sanctions that have caused Iran major economic pain would be progressively lifted, although the six powers insist they can be easily "snapped back" if Tehran violates the accord.
The powers want the deal to ensure that Iran would need at least a year to produce enough highly-enriched uranium for one weapon, compared with several months at present and even less in 2013.
Tighter inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, would give ample notice of any such "breakout", giving the international community sufficient time to react.
AFP
