Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif  talking to journalist from a balcony of the Palais Coburg hotel where the  nuclear talks are being held in Vienna yesterday.

Reuters
Vienna


Iran and major powers gave themselves until Monday to reach a nuclear agreement, their third extension in two weeks, as Tehran accused the West of throwing up new stumbling blocks to a deal.
Both sides say there has been progress in two weeks of talks, but British Secretary Philip Hammond called it “painfully slow” and he and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, left Vienna saying they would return today.
Having missed a Friday morning US congressional deadline, US and European Union officials said they were extending sanctions relief for Iran under an interim deal through Monday to provide more time for talks on a final deal.
Iran and six powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US - are trying to end a more than 12-year dispute over Iran’s atomic programme by negotiating limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
The sides remain divided over issues that include a UN arms embargo on Iran which Western powers want to keep in place, access for inspectors to military sites in Iran and answers from Tehran over past activity suspected of military aims.
Iran Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif said negotiators would probably spend today and tomorrow in Vienna. He sought to blame the West for the impasse.
“Now, they have excessive demands,” he said of the major powers’ negotiating position.
Britain’s Hammond said ministers would regroup today to see if they could overcome the remaining hurdles.
“We are making progress, it’s painfully slow,” he told reporters before leaving Vienna.
Zarif has been holding intense meetings for two weeks with US Secretary of State John Kerry to try to hammer out a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in return for withdrawing economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.
An agreement would be the biggest step towards rapprochement between Iran and the West since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
But the negotiations have become bogged down, with final deadlines extended three times in the past 10 days and diplomats speaking of a shouting match between Kerry and Zarif.
The White House said yesterday the US and its negotiating partners “have never been closer” to agreement with Iran but that the US delegation would not wait indefinitely.
“The president has indicated to his negotiating team that they should remain in Vienna and they should continue to negotiate as long as the talks continue to be useful,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing.
“And if it becomes clear that Iran is not interested in engaging in a constructive way to try to resolve the remaining sticking points, then the negotiators should come home.”
The negotiators missed a Friday morning deadline set by the US Congress for an expedited 30-day review of the deal. Any deal sent to Congress before September 7 would now be subject to a 60-day review period, accounting for lawmakers’ summer recess.
US officials had previously expressed concern that the extended review would provide more time for any deal to unravel, but have played down that risk in the last few days as it became increasingly likely that the deadline would not be met.
On Thursday, Kerry suggested Washington’s patience was running out: “We can’t wait forever,” he told reporters.