Iran and six world powers made little progress this week in talks on ending their dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, U.S. and Iranian officials said on Friday, raising doubts over the prospects for a breakthrough by a July 20 deadline, according to the Associated Press.
After three months of mostly comparing expectations rather than negotiating compromises, the sides had intended to start drafting a final agreement that could end more than a decade of enmity and distrust and dispel fears of a wider Middle East war, the AP reported.
This fourth round of negotiations in the Austrian capital began on Wednesday and ended on Friday, according to the AP.
Officials said the Vienna talks would resume at an unspecified date in June and that all parties wanted to adhere to their July 20 deadline for completing a deal that would curb sensitive parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions, the AP reported.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged the meeting made "no progress" in its ambitious goal of starting to draft an agreement meant to ease a decade of Western distrust about Tehran's nuclear agenda in exchange for sanctions relief, according to the AP.
In that, "we failed," he told reporters, the AP reported. Araghchi added he was disappointed and insisted the result of the three-day talks that ended Friday represented no more than a setback at this point in continuing attempts to reach a deal, the AP reported.
A senior U.S. official who asked to be kept anonymous said there was "great difficulty" in trying to move toward common positions and spoke of "significant" differences, according to the AP. Both Araghchi and the official said further meetings were planned in June, but no dates were announced.
For the first time since the six powers and Iran began negotiating on a long-term deal in Vienna in February, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who speaks on behalf of the six powers, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif chose not to appear for a joint news conference, according to the AP.
