 LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Wrapping up six days of marathon nuclear talks with mixed results, Iran and six world powers prepared Tuesday to issue a general statement agreeing to continue negotiations in a new phase aimed at reaching a comprehensive accord by the end of June, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Zarif’s team is sticking by the demand by their country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, for all sanctions to be lifted at once in return for Iranian acceptance of restrictions on its nuclear programme over a period of at least 10 years. Russia’s Sergei Lavrov left the talks on Monday afternoon to hold official meetings in Moscow, but said he would return to Lausanne later on Tuesday, telling reporters in the Russian capital that there was a good chance of success. Foreign ministers of five nations at the table already joined U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the talks over the weekend in an intense effort to reach a political understanding on terms that would curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. In addition to sticking points on research and development, differences remain on the timing and scope of sanctions removal, the officials said. The six-nation group wants restrictions to extend for a further five years, wary that new centrifuges could drastically reduce Iran’s breakout time (the period it would need to build a bomb, should it make that decision). Iran rejects such prolonged curbs on its centrifuge development, saying it would render the country dependent on foreign technology.
– With a midnight deadline looming, Iran and the six nations it's conferring with in Switzerland have reached a deal—to continue talks for a deal on Tehran's hotly contested nuke program. The nations are expected to release a joint statement today announcing they'll enter a "new phase" of negotiations that will end with a full-fledged agreement by the end of June, according to two unnamed officials, per the AP. While headway had been made, key sticking points mean the language is being revised to say today's talks will end in an "understanding," with "technical" issues to be resolved in coming months, the AP notes. What's going on: Iran wants all UN sanctions lifted immediately; the six-country bloc is willing to make other concessions—including nixing banking limitations and getting rid of the EU oil embargo—but wants some sanctions in place until Iran makes good on its promises. That looks unlikely, with supreme leader Ali Khamenei posting yesterday, "Sanctions must be lifted in one go, not as a result of future Iranian actions," per the Guardian. Although Iran has said it will acquiesce to restrictions on its centrifuge development over the next decade, beyond that is fair game. The other countries at the negotiating table want to cut down Iran's "breakout time" (the time it would take to construct a bomb) by adding five more years onto the 10-year moratorium. Iran argues that would keep the country under the thumb of other nations' technology, the Guardian notes. The question of Iran's uranium stash remains on the table, with Tehran's main negotiator saying Iran has no intention of shipping its fuel out, and the US State Department conceding that there's still a lot of back and forth on this issue. "The bottom line is that we don't have agreement with the Iranians on the stockpile issue," a State rep said yesterday, per the New York Times.