DHAKA: World powers were set Tuesday to miss yet another deadline to nail down an elusive nuclear deal ending a 13-year standoff with Iran, despite hours of difficult top-level negotiations.

In a sign of how complex the negotiations have become, foreign ministers met deep into the night Monday grappling with the toughest remaining issues which have so far thwarted a deal to curtail Iran's nuclear program.

In what has become a high-stakes game of diplomatic poker, the ministers met twice Monday with the Iranian delegation led by foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for a total of almost three hours.

And even though he was seen smiling broadly when cameras were allowed a quick glimpse of the talks, there was little immediate sign of an end to the deadlock.

After busting through an initial June 30 deadline, the latest round of negotiations looked set to power beyond Tuesday’s new target date.

Asked whether Tuesday’s deadline may slip, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, ‘I would say that it’s certainly possible’.

State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington that Tuesday was ‘not a deadline. It was an extension of basically seven days of the parameters’ of an April 2 framework accord struck in Lausanne.

But he refused to be drawn on what might happen on Tuesday, insisting, ‘Everybody is still I think rowing on the oars here to try to get a deal done, but it’s got to be the right deal’.

An Iranian official earlier made it clear that ‘July 7, July 8, we do not consider these dates as those dates we have to finish our job’.

‘Even if we pass July 9, that will not be the end of the world,’ the Iranian said, asking not to be identified, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1224 HRS, JULY 07, 2015
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