Warning signs in Vienna:: Iran charges Western powers with "excessive demands" for a peaceful resolution

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Warning signs in Vienna as Iran talks end with silence By MICHAEL WILNER
05/16/2014 21:00
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No progress made in talks as Iran charges Western powers with "excessive demands" for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, US warns time running out. Iran nuclear talks
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton (centre L) meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (centre R) in Vienna April 9, 2014. Photo: REUTERS
WASHINGTON -- Negotiations over Iran's nuclear program appear to have hit a wall, as Iran charged Western powers on Friday with "excessive demands" for a peaceful resolution to the crisis while the United States warned that the parties are running out of time for diplomacy.

The fourth round of negotiations in Vienna, with the goal of reaching a comprehensive solution to the longstanding nuclear impasse, ended on Friday without a press conference from the parties— a linchpin in previous rounds between Iran, the US, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany.

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An interim deal reached last fall grants world powers and Iran until July 20 to negotiate a comprehensive plan of action. That deadline, however, can be extended an additional six months, should all parties agree that more time is needed.

An EU official told members of the press on Friday that meetings had been agreed to by the parties for June and July, though no dates were specified.

"The West should avoid having excessive demands," an Iranian source close to the country's negotiating team was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars News Agency. "The Iranian nation has shown that pressure on them always backfires."

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on Friday that "no tangible progress" had been made— but that negotiations were first hitting sensitive points of contention, and that progress would invariably be slow.

"Talks have been slow and difficult. Significant gaps remain," a US official said after the talks concluded. "Iran still has some hard decisions to make. We're concerned that progress is not being made and that time is short."

The US and Iranian statements might be designed in part to raise pressure on the other side but they also betrayed stubbornly deep differences that must be overcome if intense diplomacy is to succeed in clinching a final accord.