DHAKA: Momentum appears to be building for a breakthrough deal on Iran`s nuclear program, with top diplomats flocking to the site of ongoing talks.
Hours after a Western official said a deal could be reached "as soon as tonight," discussions ended Friday night, a senior U.S. State Department said. They are set to resume Saturday morning.
By that point, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague should both be in Geneva. They`ll have company in the form of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who headed to the Swiss city Friday night according to an European Union diplomatic source, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to his ministry`s website.
They all join Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as well as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who have been the key players in the latest round of discussions.
Together, these diplomats represent all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany -- together known as the P5+1 -- which has been negotiating with Iran about their nuclear program.
The hastily rearranged plans indicate that these Geneva talks are continuing past their scheduled conclusion Friday, though the hopes clearly go beyond just talking.
After talking to Ashton and the U.S. negotiating team, Kerry "made the decision to travel here with the hope that an agreement will be reached," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
The Western powers have been working toward an agreement to roll back Iran`s suspected march toward a nuclear weapon. On the other side, Tehran has been looking for loosening of the economic sanctions that are strangling its economy.
Zarif said Friday there is wide agreement except for a couple of points, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency reported.
"It should become clear today if we want to reach to a conclusion in the ongoing round of talks or further negotiation events are needed," Zarif said, according to ISNA. "Numerically speaking, perhaps 90% of progress has been made, but there (are) one or two issues which are of great significance."
A major sticking point to an agreement has been Iran`s right to enrich uranium, officials involved in the discussions said.
Iran wants the explicit right to do so to be part of the deal -- which would likely extend six months and ideally be a precursor to a more sweeping pact -- diplomats told CNN. Western powers, on the other hand, prefer ambiguity on this matter: They don`t want that point written into the agreement, but if Iran states its right to enrich uranium, the West won`t dispute it, the diplomats said.
Source: CNN
BDST: 1142 HRS, NOV 23, 2013
