US sees Iran deal within reach, admits deadline will be missed
The White House has suggested that a nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers is within reach.
As talks continued between negotiators from Iran and the six countries in Vienna, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday that a final agreement "is within our sights".
He further said there were “still some important unresolved issues", admitting that a June-end deadline would be missed.
“Our negotiators will remain in Vienna past the deadline in pursuit of a final agreement,” Earnest said.
Some issues will not be "resolved in the next 36 hours. It will require additional time, and that's additional time that our negotiators will take in Vienna in pursuit of reaching an agreement,” Earnest said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, however, said it was still “too early” to judge a possible deal as the self-imposed deadline approached.
"We're just working and it's too early to make any judgments," Kerry told reporters in Vienna after a meeting with Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
IAEA has access it needs
Meanwhile, AFP quoted a senior US official as saying that "The United States of America wouldn't allow anybody to get into every military site, so that's not appropriate."
"There are conventional purposes, and there are secrets that any country has that they are not willing to share," the official was cited as saying. “We believe will ensure that the IAEA has the access it needs."
Iranian officials have time and again rejected calls for inspections of military sites and interviews with Iranian nuclear scientists as part of the deal.
Iran and the P5+1 – the US, Russia, Britain, China, France, and Germany – have been in talks to reach a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear energy program following a mutual understanding reached in the Swiss city of Lausanne early in April after months of tough negotiations.
The negotiations would continue into Tuesday when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, are expected to arrive in the Austrian capital.
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