US official says ‘creativity’ needed for Iran deal

A senior US official said Saturday that “creativity” was needed in resolving the differences between Iran and world powers over a nuclear deal, ahead of a November deadline.

“We have about eight more weeks… that’s not a staggering amount of time… the gaps are still serious,” the US administration official told reporters, vowing that “we will continue the hard work over the next few weeks.”

He acknowledged that gaps remained over Iran’s enrichment and capacity, while the Islamic Republic still has serious concerns about crippling international sanctions.

“This is a complicated negotiation and if we don’t come up with some ways forward we will not get to” a comprehensive agreement reining in Iran’s suspect nuclear program by November 24, the official warned, asking not to be identified.

All the teams “are going back to our capitals” and will “absorb” what happened, before deciding when next to meet.

“We have still some very, very difficult understandings yet to reach,” the official said, adding that “everyone still has to make decisions… and we continue to look to Iran to make the ones necessary for an agreement.”

On Thursday, diplomats told the Associated Press the US was considering softening present demands that Iran gut its uranium-enrichment program, in favor of a new proposal that would allow Tehran to keep nearly half of the project intact, while placing other constraints on its possible use as a path to nuclear weapons.

The US, which fears Tehran may enrich to weapons-grade level used to arm nuclear warheads, ideally wants no more than 1,500 centrifuges left operating. Iran insists it wants to use the technology only to make reactor fuel and for other peaceful purposes and insists it be allowed to run at least the present 9,400 machines.

The tentative new US offer attempts to meet the Iranians close to halfway on numbers, said two diplomats who demanded anonymity because their information is confidential. They said it envisages letting Iran keep up to 4,500 centrifuges but would reduce the stock of uranium gas fed into the machines to the point where it would take more than a year of enriching to create enough material for a nuclear warhead.

That, they said, would give the international community enough lead time to react to any such attempt.

Israel voiced vociferous objections to the reported American proposal.

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that Israel “strongly opposes leaving thousands of [uranium] centrifuges active in Iran,” adding that “this deal is reminiscent of the failed deal reached in 2007 with North Korea, which now possesses 10 nuclear warheads.”

The diplomats emphasized that the proposal is only one of several being discussed by the six powers — the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — and has not yet been formally submitted to the Iranians.

Other ideas also include letting Iran have more than 1,500 machines, but removing or destroying much of the infrastructure needed to make them run — wiring, pipes used to feed uranium gas and other auxiliary equipment.

Both ideas would allow the Iranians to claim that they did not compromise on vows that they would never emasculate their enrichment capabilities, while keeping intact American demands that the program be downgraded to a point where it could not be quickly turned to making bombs.