Negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear program have been "tough and very serious" and the next few days will show whether Tehran is ready to make the necessary hard decisions, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's move to reach out to the leaders of the six powers on Thursday is "hopefully a sign that Iran is ready to make some of the tough decisions," the senior State Department official added on condition of anonymity.
The official said that other foreign ministers from the six-power group, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia as well as the United States, will arrive in the coming days to join the talks in Lausanne, Switzerland ahead of an end-March deadline for a political framework agreement.
Tehran and the powers are struggling to hammer out a political framework accord by the end of this month that would lay the foundations for a full settlement by June 30.
"The difficulty is that the Iranians are not moving enough. They like to negotiate right up to the precipice and they're very good at that," a Western diplomat said.
Under a final accord, Tehran would halt sensitive nuclear work for at least a decade and in exchange, international financial and oil and some U.N. sanctions on Iran would be lifted. This would aim to end Iran's 12-year nuclear standoff with the West and reduce the risk of war in the Middle East.
Initial easing of U.N. Security Council sanctions could include "gestures" such as removal of individuals and entities from a travel-ban and asset-freeze blacklist and little more, a Western diplomat said, adding Tehran needed to move much further to allow a deal to be made in the coming days.
He said the U.N. arms embargo on Iran would not be lifted in the initial phase after any Irandeal, adding that such a move would be unwise given the volatile situation in the region.
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