News / Foreign Policy

Negotiators working hard to resolve 'tricky issues': Kerry

Monday, 30 March 2015 7:41 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 30 March 2015 7:50 PM ]

(L to R) US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman wait for a meeting during Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne on March 30, 2015. (AFP photo)

US Secretary of State John Kerry says he and his global counterparts are working hard to resolve "tricky issues" obstructing an agreement with Iran over its nuclear energy program.

"There still remain some difficult issues. We are working very hard to work those through. We are working late into the night and obviously into tomorrow," Kerry told a CNN correspondent on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He added that "everyone knows the meaning of tomorrow" when a self-imposed deadline for reaching a mutual understanding over the outstanding issues between Iran and P5+1 over Tehran’s civilian nuclear work expires at midnight.

Iran and P5+1 – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – are engaged in intense negotiations to reach a comprehensive deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The two sides have set July 1 as the deadline for a final agreement.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held a meeting with Kerry, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

(From L) Mohammad Javad Zarif, Ali Akbar Salehi, Hossein Fereydoon, and Abbas Araghchi wait to start a meeting with the P5+1 at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel on March 30, 2015 in Lausanne. (AFP photo)

Meanwhile, the US State Department said on Monday, "We've been negotiating since September of 2013," referring to the first meeting between Kerry and Zarif, "and it's sort of time to see whether they can make these decisions."

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said she could not predict what would happen if the outlines of an agreement were not reached by March 31.

"We have no idea what will happen if we can't get this done by the 31st. Obviously we always are planning for contingencies," she told reporters on a conference call.

"We will have to take a very hard look at where we are and we will have to decide what happens next, and I don't want to predict what that outcome will be,” she said.

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