P5+1 internal discord can ruin talks

Tehran, Dec 16, IRNA - 'Iran Daily' on Tuesday commented on the upcoming new round of nuclear talks in Geneva, on Wednesday, between Iran-P5+1 following their failure to come to a final deal in Vienna last month. Elucidating on the issue, the English-language paper expressed its belief that a final deal with be achieved if Iran and the US settle their disagreements. Although Washington is the leading member of the P5+1, Iran should not overlook the role of other members. The country should have a comprehensive outlook in this respect since other members can become troublemakers. Last year, France was about to kill an interim deal, known as the Geneva plan of action, noted the paper in its Opinion column. At the time, the European country said it was concerned about the Arak heavy water reactor and demanded further inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites and the dismantlement of more facilities. The Iranian negotiating team has repeatedly said that the P5+1 should have a unified stance. If disagreements among the members of the sextet remain untouched and result in the failure of the talks, then Europe and the US will suffer more losses than Iran, pointed out the paper. In light of the above, Iranian diplomats should thus pay a special attention to other members especially those representing the European Union in order to pave the way for a final deal, underscored the daily. The paper recalled that the main obstacle to a comprehensive agreement before the November-24 deadline was mostly rooted in the sour Iran-US ties. The capacity of uranium enrichment, especially the number of operating centrifuges as well as sanctions imposed on Iran, particularly those by the US Congress, prevented the finalization of a deal. This was revealed by the media and not by diplomatic sources. Before the last round of talks in Vienna, certain Arab media outlets said new disagreements had emerged in the course of the Iran-US meeting in Muscat and that was Tehran’s missile program, it noted. They said the request by US Secretary of State John Kerry in Oman to include Iran’s missile capabilities in nuclear talks led to the failure of the negotiations in Austria. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was earlier quoted by a lawmaker as saying that the country “will never permit the other negotiating party to raise out-of-agenda issues such as human rights and the missile program” at the nuclear talks./end