Kerry consults United States partners before further talks with Iran

Iran and world powers gave themselves an extra week on Tuesday to reach an accord curbing Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but US President Barack Obama warned there would be no deal if all pathways to an Iranian nuclear weapon were not cut off. “[W]e are careful about the independence of the IAEA and their autonomy, and they’re working together with us but not for us and make their own decisions”, the official said.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, right, shakes hands with the worldwide Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general, Yukiya Amano, as they pose for photos at the start of their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 2, 2015.

In addition the United States Senate has made things more hard for their negotiating team by passing a bill that allows them to review the deal before it can be implemented.

The official went on to downplay concerns about Iran’s violation, claiming that Tehran was only having some “technical problems”.

The 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) meant that IAEA inspectors could only visit sites that a state had declared, but did not provide for inspections of other sites. Those nations have also agreed to participate in the group’s additional protocols, which call for such access.

“We will continue and we will make progress”, Zarif said.

Making a dramatic visit to Tehran days before the July 7 deadline for a nuclear deal, the head of an global atomic watchdog agency has emerged as a central figure in the effort to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb – even as Republicans and other skeptics worry that a nuclear deal will require a unsafe reliance on his agency.

But an analysis of the confidential report by the nonpartisan Institute for Science and worldwide Security found that Iran’s enrichment didn’t actually meet the requirements of the deal. In turn, Iran will receive over $100 billion in sanctions relief.

Thousands of kilometres away in Vienna, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Britain, Russian Federation and China are to join the USA Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif who have been in talks since Saturday.

Former Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) sit on the board of directors for the American Security Initiative, which launched an ad blitz targeting eight senators from both sides of the aisle to oppose any deal that doesn’t permit “unconditional inspections” of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there are still both big and small obstacles in the negotiations that have to be removed, and said “I am confident that all sides represented in Vienna intend to reach agreement”, according to IRNA. “The open question, which I can not answer you yet, is whether the will and courage will be sufficient among all at the end”.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ravanchi also noted that foreign ministers will leave Vienna on Thursday, and the time of their return will be decided later.

“We’ve reached the point where ministers have to sit around a table and take some decisions”, says another.

And Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, confirmed to the press there would be movement over several days.