Fabius wants more progress in Iran nuclear talks

PARIS, April 1 (KUNA) -- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who has just returned from high-level, international talks with Iran in Switzerland, said Wednesday that he wanted more progress on the controversial nuclear file which was due to be wrapped up at midnight last night.
The P5+1 group, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, have been locked in talks in Lausanne to try to resolve the decades-old stand-off over Tehran's nuclear programmes and suspicions Iran was experimenting with a military nuclear component in its research and development.
Iran denies any intention of developing an atomic weapon but the international community wants iron-clad guarantees this will not happen in the future.
Fabius told France's "I-Tele" on Wednesday that "there has been progress but not enough" for an agreement to be reached within the deadline.
Despite the midnight, cut-off last night, the parties continued the marathon talks Wednesday morning.
The difficulties, diplomats said here, revolve around the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges Iran would be allowed to maintain for research purposes and also on the guarantees, monitoring and inspection regime for Iranian nuclear activities.
Fabius, who came to Paris from Lausanne to attend a weekly Cabinet meeting, said that there was progress in the talks "but not on all issues." The Lausanne talks are ongoing with US, British and German Foreign Ministers, while the Russian, Chinese and French Foreign Ministers have left the discussions in the hands of senior civil servants and have returned home.
Iran has been placed under four rounds of United Nations economic and travel sanctions and the European Union, the United States and other countries have also passed separate, punishing measures because of the refusal by Tehran to cooperate up until now on the nuclear file.
If a satisfactory deal is reached in Lausanne, these sanctions would be lifted but there is also a dispute over how this would be done. Iran wants a total and immediate lifting of the sanctions, while the US and other are proposing a "snap back" system whereby the UN measures could be re-imposed automatically if Iran violates the terms of the accord. This latter system would not need a new UN resolution which would prevent a Russian veto of the action against Tehran. (end) jk.ibi