German FM: Fate of nuclear talks ‘completely open’

VIENNA — German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Saturday that the outcome of Iran’s nuclear talks with six world powers was “completely open.”

Despite huge gaps in the negotiations, “we have never been closer in more than 10 years,” Steinmeier said as he joined the talks in Vienna.

“If Iran is ready to take this opportunity then movement is possible…Whether we can get a result is right now completely open,” he said.

“We will do whatever we can and if we can’t then we will leave ourselves open to the accusation that we have missed out on something that could have resolved this standoff,” Steinmeier added.

At stake in the Austrian capital Vienna is a historic deal in which Iran would curb its nuclear activities in exchange for broad relief from years of heavy international economic sanctions.

It could end a 12-year standoff with the West that has even raised the threat of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Steinmeier was due to be briefed by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has met with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif, here three times since Thursday.

Iranian sources said Zarif was also due to meet the German top diplomat.

Besides Iran, Germany and the United States, the talks involve Russia, China, France and Britain.

The talks hit a new snag Friday after Iran apparently again turned down US demands for concessions, leaving negotiations in limbo just three days before a deadline for a deal.

In hours of high drama reflecting the delicate stage of the talks, both Kerry and Zarif first made, then canceled plans to walk away from the talks — at least temporarily — for additional consultations. Such developments could have meant possible progress, suggesting that the Iranians needed political approval from Tehran to move forward.

After initially announcing he was flying to Paris, Kerry suddenly reversed course and scheduled a new meeting with Zarif late Friday, with the two talking into the evening for more than two hours.

Iranian media initially spoke of a new US initiative that Zarif needed to have his superiors sign off on, but the Iranian diplomat dashed those hopes. “There have been a lot of discussions in Vienna, but there were no remarkable offers and ideas to take to Tehran,” Zarif told Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that a phone call between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that “more efforts are needed” to meet Monday’s deadline for a deal. And after consulting in Vienna with participants in the talks, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond spoke of “a very significant gap between the parties.”