Brussels, 07/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - At midday on Tuesday 7 July, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme between the E3+3 (Germany, France, United Kingdom and China, United States, Russia) and Iran are to be extended by a few days. The original 30 June deadline had already been extended until 7 July.
“We are continuing negotiations in these hours. We might see some ministers leaving in the next hours and then being ready to come back in the coming hours and days. We are continuing to negotiate for the next couple of days”, Mogherini announced. Although she did not want to give an exact date, Marie Harf, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, said that the negotiations could continue until Friday 10 July. “To allow more time to negotiate, we have taken the necessary technical measures for the joint action plan (of November 2013) to remain in place through July 10”, she said. An official close to the Iranian delegation said that Iran did not have a “deadline”.
Mogherini said she was not talking about extending the negotiations. “I am talking about taking the hours we need to try to complete our work”, she said. “It is difficult. We always knew it was going to be difficult. But we are continuing to work to see if we manage to finalise the agreement”, she added. “We have a space. It is difficult. But we all know that we have a very important responsibility we cannot miss”, Mogherini stated, saying that the negotiators were working very hard to finalise the agreement.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that eight or nine issues were still outstanding in the negotiations. In his view, lifting the arms embargo against Iran remains a major problem. His French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, said that the possible military dimension of the Iranian nuclear programme, the issue of sanctions and that of the limit on Iranian nuclear production were still not settled. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)