Brussels, 26/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 25 March, a senior European official stated that the West would like to have an agreement before 31 March on the key parameters of the content of the Iranian nuclear programme.
“What we would like to achieve by the end of this week is an understanding on the key issues, the key parameters”, this official told a few journalists. At the European Council on 20 March, France's President François Hollande said that research and development, as well as lifting the West's sanctions, were issues that remained to be settled (see EUROPE 11279).
A US official, quoted by French news agency AFP, thought that it was possible to conclude an agreement by 31 March. “We really think we can do this by 31 March”, this official said. The senior European official commented that “this is not the end game this week”. “There will not be an agreement by the end of this week, because the agreement will only be done when all the technical details are down and that is quite a lot”, he said.
The European source also said that “on the substance, we made really good progress in the last weeks - but we are not there yet”. In the face of the differences that exist between the Western countries - especially between France and the US - the European source stated that the West remained united, even if there were “different positions on some issues” (although the source gave no further detail).
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif continued their bilateral meetings on Thursday. The political directors of France, Germany, the UK, China and Russia will also be in Lausanne. They may be joined later in the week by the foreign ministers of these countries.
“Once there is an agreement, we want to show the Iranian people that this is paying off and paves the way to a more constructive relationship with the rest of the world”, the senior European official said. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)