Time to make hard decisions to reach Iran deal, Kerry says

Tehran, March 22, IRNA – US Secretary of State John Kerry says Iran and the P5+1 countries have made “substantial progress” in talks on Teheran’s nuclear program, adding that now is the “time to make hard decisions.” Washington isn’t rushing to reach the agreement just for the sake of beating the self-imposed end-March deadline for a framework agreement between Iran and six major powers, Kerry said on Saturday in Switzerland before leaving for London for talks with his British, French and German counterparts. Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – will continue next week in Lausanne, Switzerland. Kerry said that 'we have worked long and hard to achieve an agreement that resolves concerns on Iran's program' 'The stakes are high and the issues are complicated and all interrelated. Once again let me also be clear. We do not want just any deal. If we had, we should have announced something a long time ago and clearly since the joint plan of action was agreed we're not rushing,' he said. 'This has been a two and a half year more process, but we recognize that fundamental decisions have to be made now, and they don't get any easier as time goes by. It's time to make hard decisions,” he noted, according to Press TV. Iran and the P5+1 countries are in talks to work out a comprehensive agreement aimed at ending the longstanding dispute over the Islamic Republic’s civilian nuclear work as a July 1 deadline approaches. Iranian nuclear negotiators, headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, (3rd R) meet the US representatives, headed by Secretary of State John Kerry (3rd L) in the Swiss city of Lusanne, March 19, 2015. On Friday, the sixth day of the latest round of negotiations in the Swiss city of Lausanne, another meeting was held between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Kerry. Following his talks with Kerry, Zarif said, “We made good progress over this week. We’ve done a lot of hard work, but some work remains ahead.” The latest talks kicked off in Lausanne on Sunday with Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz holding high-level technical negotiations. Experts from Iran and the US as well as the AEOI spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, also participated in the meeting.