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                       Iran Talks Continue Past Deadline

   by Al Pessin

   Ministerial talks between six world powers and Iran on the future of
   its nuclear program continued Wednesday in Lausanne, Switzerland, hours
   after the deadline for reaching an interim agreement had passed.

   Senior officials on all sides reported progress late Tuesday,
   justifying their decision to keep talking past the midnight deadline.
   But the elusive agreement on key points had not been achieved when the
   sun rose over the Swiss Alps Wednesday morning.

   The goal is to agree on key elements of an accord and then give
   technical experts three months to draft a detailed agreement,
   potentially ending more than a decade of dispute over Iran's nuclear
   program.  The accord is supposed to verifiably guarantee the program is
   purely peaceful, as Iran claims, and gradually lift a complex web of
   international economic sanctions.

   It appeared to be the sanctions that were the final sticking point,
   with negotiators unable to come up with a sequence that satisfied
   Iran's desire for fast relief and the international negotiators' desire
   to ensure Iran could not evade its commitments after sanctions end.

   Iran has still not met United Nations Security Council demands for a
   full accounting of its past secret nuclear weapons program.  Many in
   the international community worry that Iran could do the same thing
   again once it is clear of the sanctions, particularly after this
   agreement expires, expected in 10 to 15 years.

   But experts say the emerging accord would provide for extensive
   inspections that would ensure that does not happen over the long term.

   "I think it's important to acknowledge that some of the monitoring and
   verification in an agreement will be permanent," said Kelsey Davenport
   of the Arms Control Association in Washington.

   Davenport noted that as part of the deal, Iran is expected to ratify
   what is called the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Nonproliferation
   Treaty.

   "That will give the international community far greater access to
   Iran's nuclear facilities, and also access to undeclared sites.  It
   will also give inspectors much more latitude to investigate areas if
   they think that illicit nuclear activities have taken place there.  Any
   deviations would be very quickly detected," said Davenport.

   At Georgetown University, Ariane Tabatabai agrees that critics of the
   negotiations do not give enough credence to the International Atomic
   Energy Association's monitoring and verification program, even though
   Iran has cooperated with it since the preliminary accord was reached a
   year and a half ago.

   "I think that is perhaps the least talked about and the most important
   part of a deal.  For the most part, people who talk about the Iran
   talks don't necessarily know much about the monitoring system.  People
   don't necessarily know what the IAEA is doing.  It's not something you
   can grasp as easily," said Tabatabai.

   One thing critics can grasp is that the deadline for agreement on the
   main points has already been missed by at least one day, and they will
   be looking at whatever comes out of these talks to try to figure out
   who made the final concessions.  Skeptics, particularly in Iran and in
   the U.S. Congress, are expected to use whatever is announced here to
   try to scuttle the process before it is finished in June.  But
   supporters of the talks warn that the alternative is a return to
   confrontation, and possibly the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
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   2311.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/iran-talks-continue-past-deadline/2702311.html