– ‘The final phase’ –
Foreign ministers from all seven countries – with the possible exception of China – were expected to be present in Vienna on Monday.
“I hope we are finally entering the final phase of these marathon negotiations. I believe it,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who cancelled a trip to Africa to stay at the talks, said Sunday.
The current diplomatic effort dates back to Rouhani’s coming to power in 2013.
He sought a rapprochement with the West and an end to his country’s diplomatic and economic isolation.
The prospect of a thawing of relations between Iran and the United States unsettles many in the Middle East, however, not least Tehran’s rivals Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies.
Israel, widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself, is also deeply concerned, complaining that the mooted deal will fail to stop its arch foe getting the bomb.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov returned to the Austrian capital on Sunday, joining US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif, Fabius, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who left Vienna on Sunday afternoon, was expected back on Monday morning. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Vienna on Sunday, the country’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
Several deadlines have been missed over the past more than two weeks of talks, although diplomats insist that the technical aspects of what will be a highly complex agreement are as good as sewn up.
On Monday the terms of a 2013 interim deal freezing parts of Iran’s nuclear programme in return for minor sanctions relief expire, although this has been extended several times already.
The deal, if it can be sealed, will however prove a “hard sell” in the US Congress, top Republican and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
“It appears as if the administration’s approach to this was to reach whatever agreement the Iranians are willing to enter into,” he told Fox News Sunday.
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