Iran nuclear: Deadline day brings talk of extension

Negotiators in Vienna, Austria, are set to make a final push to try to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear programme ahead of a 23:00 GMT deadline.

They said earlier "serious gaps" remained, suggesting that an extension could be agreed instead.

World powers - the US, UK, Russia, China, France plus Germany - want Iran to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of UN sanctions.

Tehran says it is not seeking nuclear weapons, but wants atomic energy.

"At the moment, we are focused on the last push... big push tomorrow morning (Monday) to try and get this across the line," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said.

President Obama told ABC a deal could mark the start of a "long process"

"Of course, if we're not able to do that, we will then look at where we're going from there."

A senior US state department official told reporters: "Our focus remains on taking steps forward toward an agreement, but it is only natural that just over 24 hours from the deadline we are discussing a range of options... an extension is one of those options."

The delegates could also set out a framework of a deal that would be finalised later.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that "if the West does not make excessive demands, an agreement is within reach", according to Iran's Resalat newspaper.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was expected to arrive in Vienna early on Monday, meaning the foreign ministers of all of the so-called P5+1 group would be in attendance.

Intense negotiation

 

The nub of the proposed agreement is the rate at which the sanctions against Iran would be lifted if the Iranians agreed to highly specific limits on the amount of uranium they could enrich, the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Vienna reports.

There is a big media presence outside Vienna's Palais Coburg, where the talks are taking place

Enriched uranium can be used to make a nuclear bomb.

Our editor says that last minute surprises will be possible at all times in what is an intense negotiation, and that some kind of agreement that allows more talks is one possibility if - as seems likely - a comprehensive deal cannot be made.

He adds that the breakthrough in Geneva a year ago, which led to these negotiations, de-escalated a crisis that seemed to be heading for war, and a failure in Vienna might revive all those dangers.

Under that Geneva Accord, Iran was to curb some of its uranium enrichment in return for sanctions relief.

Students in Tehran held a protest in support for Iran's nuclear programme

 

However, the two sides failed to reach a lasting deal by July, as initially agreed, and extended the deadline until 24 November.

Iranian sources told BBC Persian's Kasra Naji that a "political agreement" could be reached before the deadline.

US President Barack Obama told broadcaster ABC on Sunday that a deal could "perhaps begin a long process in which the relationship... between Iran and the world, and the region, begins to change".