Iran nuclear talks: Intensive talks before key deadline

Rouhani's Iran
Talks have resumed in Switzerland ahead of Tuesday's deadline for a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran.

Foreign ministers from six world powers are meeting their Iranian counterpart, amid hopes of a breakthrough after almost 18 months of negotiations.

They want to impose limits that would prevent Iran from producing enough fuel for a nuclear weapon within a year.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, wants to see crippling sanctions lifted in return.

Iranian and Western officials have said that a deal is possible, but that some issues are still to be resolved.
'No compromise'

The negotiations in Lausanne were expected to intensify on Monday, with foreign ministers from the so-called P5+1 - comprising the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany - meeting Iran's top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif. The EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is also there.Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier (centre) said the "endgame" of the negotiations had begun

They are aiming to agree on a political framework by Tuesday night that would set the stage for talks on the technical details of a comprehensive accord, due by 30 June.

"We are here because we believe a deal can be done," UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters as he arrived in Lausanne on Sunday night.

"But it has to be a deal which puts the bomb beyond Iran's reach," he added. "There can't be any compromise about that."
At the scene: Lyse Doucet, BBC News, Lausanne

It's going down to the proverbial wire in this crucial round of nuclear talks. One Western diplomat spoke of "some quite important gaps".

Two main disputes continue to be which sanctions will be lifted and when, and what kind of nuclear research and development Iran can still pursue.

As Iran's team sits with all six foreign ministers, observers say it's still not clear if they're engaging in high stakes bargaining or have no more political space to move forward.

For Iran, elements like ending sanctions tied to UN Security Council resolutions matter in financial and political terms. For world powers, "putting the bomb beyond Iran's reach" is the main imperative.

All sides indicate talks could slip past Tuesday's self-imposed deadline, into the early hours of Wednesday. All sides use the word "tough" to describe this historic endgame. Even if they agree a framework, there's still a huge amount of work ahead to draft a final deal by the end of June.
Mr Zarif, who has been holding talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry since Thursday, said he believed they could "make the necessary progress to be able to resolve all the issues and start writing them down".

The BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Lausanne says the essence of the emerging deal is to keep Iran at least one year away from being able to produce enough nuclear fuel for a single weapon.Iran's representatives at the talks want a "precise framework" for the lifting of sanctions

Those restrictions would last at least a decade, and include rigorous inspections of its nuclear facilities, in exchange for an end to crippling sanctions, our correspondent adds.

Western officials say there has been progress on proposals to reduce Iran's nuclear technology.

But our correspondent says disagreements remain on how long Iran would be subject to constraints, and on the speed of sanctions relief.

A Western diplomat told the AFP news agency that Iran had "more or less" agreed to reduce the number of centrifuges used to enrich uranium from 20,000 to 6,000. While enriched uranium is used as fuel for nuclear reactors, it can also be used to make nuclear bombs.Iran says it needs to be able to enrich uranium to produce fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant

But the lead Iranian negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, announced on Sunday that his country was no longer willing to ship its stockpile of enriched uranium abroad.

Western officials insisted there were other ways of dealing with the stockpile, including blending it into a more diluted form, the New York Times reported. That could make enriching it to weapons grade far lengthier or perhaps even impossible, the officials said.

Mr Araqchi said there also had to be a "precise framework" for the lifting of UN sanctions, as well as those imposed unilaterally by the US and EU.

Iran also reportedly wants all limits on its nuclear activities to be lifted after 10 years, while the P5+1 wants them to be removed progressively over the following five years.
What do they want?
The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China want a suspension of Iran's most sensitive nuclear work for more than 10 years
Iranian negotiator Hamid Baidinejad has said "15 years is out of the question" but "10 years is being discussed"
Iran had originally insisted on keeping nearly 10,000 centrifuges in operation
In November, Washington indicated it could accept around 6,000
Iranian officials say they have been pushing for 6,500-7,000