Tehran : Iran and six world powers would now look to negotiate a “political agreement” as a comprehensive deal by the Nov 24 deadline would be “impossible”, Iranian officials said.
“We haven’t been interested in extending the nuclear negotiations and we aren’t. We are working hard on a framework to reach a political agreement,” the official said, Xinhua reported, citing the semi-official ISNA news agency.
Earlier Sunday, a member of Iran’s negotiating team at Vienna said that it would be impossible to reach a deal by the Monday deadline, the report said, citing ISNA.
“Considering the short time left until the deadline and a number of issues that needed to be discussed and resolved, it is impossible to reach a final and comprehensive deal by Nov 24,” the unnamed member of the negotiating team said.
Reports had earlier said that Iran was considering to extend the talks by up to a year.
According to sources, “the issue of extension of the talks is an option on the table”, which would be discussed if no deal is reached by the deadline.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) — the US, Britain, France, China, Russia — and Germany are trying to reach a nuclear deal with Iran in the Austrian capital Vienna, for a long-term solution to the issue of the disputed Iranian nuclear programme.
Western states want Iran to significantly curtail its nuclear programme, while Iran wants to keep most of its nuclear enrichment capacity. Iran has continued to insist that it has an inalienable right to develop its civilian atomic plan.