[Al Ahram] Efforts to finalise a historic nuclear deal with Iran remain stuck on several issues, diplomats from both sides said Friday as US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
headed to Vienna for crunch weekend talks.
"Some major problems exist which are still blocking the work... but in other areas we have made good progress," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
from the Austrian capital, four days before a deadline for a deal.
"Overall, the work is moving ahead slowly and with difficulty," he added, without going into details.
This was echoed by a Western diplomat involved in the talks, who said that several key issues including future UN inspections and the timing of sanctions relief remain "extremely problematic".
"The most difficult issues need to be resolved in the coming days: transparency, inspections, PMD (possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme), sanctions... On the major issues there is major disagreement," the diplomat said.
The envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said that the June 30 deadline may be missed but only by a few days, echoing comments from other figures.
Iran's IRNA news agency meanwhile quoted a source as saying that the remaining gaps "all involve issues of substantial and essential divergence".