France: More progress needed for Iran nuclear accord

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday that more work needed to be done to reach a deal on Iran’s contested nuclear program as a March deadline for a political framework looms over the talks.

“There has been progress but as regards to the numbers, controls and the length of the agreement, the situation is still not satisfactory, so there is more work to be done,” Fabius said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers meeting in Latvia.

Fabius gave no figures but key issues in the talks which began in late 2013 include the level of uranium enrichment that Iran should be allowed, the degree of international oversight of its program and how long an accord should last.

“The deadline is March 31 but in the event, it could be later although everyone wants to make progress by the end of the month,” Fabius said.

Fabius will host a meeting in Paris on Saturday with his US, British and German counterparts — John Kerry, Philip Hammond and Frank-Walter Steinmeier — along with EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini to review progress in the negotiations.

The P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany wants an accord that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.

In return, the West would ease damaging sanctions on Iran, which insists its nuclear program is purely civilian.

Saturday’s Paris talks cap an intense week of exchanges, with Kerry meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Switzerland over several days. He also traveled to Saudi Arabia this week to consult with Gulf states on the emerging deal.

Earlier Friday, Mogherini said she believed “a good deal is at hand,” adding that a successful outcome now depended more on political will than on technical negotiations.

“I believe a good deal is at hand. I also believe that there is not going to be any deal if it is not going to be a good deal. And this is something we have to pass as a message to all our friends and partners,” she was quoted by Reuters as saying, an apparent reference to Israel whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a controversial, much-talked-about trip to Washington Tuesday to speak about the dangers of a bad deal with Iran.

In the speech, Netanyahu launched a devastating assault on US President Barack Obama for his pursuit of a deal which Netanyahu claims would pave the way for a nuclear-armed Iran

The talks with Iran have been extended several times. The end-March deadline is for a political agreement, with the overall deal to be concluded by the end of June.