Germany: ‘We have never been so close’ to solving Iran crisis

The world is closer than it has ever been to achieving a nuclear deal with Iran, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday night, though he added that the talks were now entering their hardest stage yet.

“We have never been so close to a deal as now,” Steinmeier said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, according to Reuters. “But the truth is that the final phase of the talks that lay before us is probably the most difficult.”

“Now is the time to end this conflict,” he added.

“I hope that Iran…in view of the situation in the world and the situation in the Middle East, knows and senses that a collapse of the talks now is not permissible.”

Steinmeier had previously said the talks were entering a “crucial phase.”

“There is no more room for Iran to play for time. We are willing to offer Iran a fair deal. However, for that to happen, Iran will need to move on the core issues,” he stated last week.

At his address to the UN GA on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said a nuclear deal was possible before the November deadline if the West wanted a deal and showed flexibility, adding that a nuclear agreement would create a new environment “for cooperation at regional and international levels, allowing for greater focus on some very important regional issues such as combating violence and extremism in the region.”

Iran and the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany — returned to the negotiating table last week with only two months left to overcome hurdles in the way of a deal on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

The pressure is on both sides to find ways to narrow the gaps. But on the eve of the talks, a senior US administration official downplayed expectations, warning: “It’s tough, very tough.”

“Coming into New York, I think many of us were not optimistic,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. “But it is clear that everyone has come here to go to work.”

Iran has long denied it is seeking to develop a nuclear bomb, but the West is demanding Tehran agree to monitoring while scaling back production of fissile material that could be used for bomb-making.

Negotiators said there were major hurdles to overcome but that holding talks in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly would allow for some high-powered diplomacy to come into play.

Last year, US President Barack Obama held a historic phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first direct talks since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but no contact was planned this time around.

Both leaders face strong domestic pressure to take a hard line on the nuclear issue, which had been a diplomatic headache for more than a decade until the process lurched into life last year.

“This is an opportunity, because everybody’s here,” said the US official. “So we ought to make use of that to try to deal with all of these tough issues.”

Western nations agreed to lift some sanctions against Iran last year in exchange for agreement from Tehran to curb some nuclear activities and to get to work on a comprehensive agreement.

Negotiators failed to meet a deadline of July 20, but all parties agreed to extend the agreement to November 24 in the hope of getting a final settlement.

While the sides have not ruled out the possibility of another extension, the focus is clearly on beating the clock with a deal by the end of November.

The main sticking point remains Western concern over Iran’s capacity to enrich uranium, a process that can make fuel for peaceful nuclear uses but also the core of an atomic bomb.

Discussions have revolved around scaling back Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity to prevent Tehran from “breaking out” and producing a nuclear weapon.