In Oman, U.S.

and Iranian negotiators

talk late into night about nuclear deal

By Carol Morello November 9 at 12:31 PMMUSCAT,

Oman The urgent quest for a breakthrough in talks to rein in Irans nuclear capacity
led negotiators to meet into the night Sunday with a deadline looming over their
heads.
Secretary of State John F Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and
Catherine Ashton, the European Unions foreign policy chief, met for three hours in
the early afternoon, and more than two hours more after nightfall. A U.S. official said
talks would resume here at the meeting site, a resort along a scenic beach between the
Hajar Mountains and the Indian Ocean, on Monday morning.
The mere fact they are still at it suggests progress is still possible, as more than a
decade of negotiations boil down to the final two weeks before a Nov. 24 deadline. If
the date passes without a deal or an extension, an interim pact dies, dealing a
potentially fatal blow to the international effort to keep the Islamic republic from

building a bomb.
Important differences remain unresolved, including the level of uranium-enrichment
capacity Iran will be permitted to retain, and the pace for phasing out international
sanctions.
For the United States and its five negotiating partners, the goal is to make sure that all
pathways to an Iranian bomb would be visible and time-consuming. Iran seeks relief
from the punishing sanctions hobbling its economy when falling oil prices are
strangling revenue.
If basic principles can be settled by the deadline, talks on minor details could continue.
But delay carries political complications, emboldening critics in Iran and the United
States.
Congress must approve a permanent lifting of U.S. sanctions. That becomes more
difficult next year, after Republicans take control in the Senate. Skeptics in Congress,
suspicious that Iran will cheat, want to impose even more sanctions. But that could
prompt Iran to abandon the negotiating table and resume enriching uranium to levels
high enough for weapons-grade fuel.
Some GOP lawmakers have expressed outrage over a letter, first reported in the Wall
Street Journal, from President Obama to Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, saying the two countries have a common interest in fighting the Islamic
State, but working together is possible only if a nuclear deal is sealed.
Kerry on Saturday declined to confirm the letters existence but forcefully denied any
linkage fighting the Islamic State and a nuclear deal.
The nuclear negotiations are on their own, he told reporters in Beijing.
Further complicating the atmosphere surrounding the talks, Khamenei chose Sunday

to tweet a plan to eliminate the fake Zionist regime, a reference to Israel.

The post on Khameneis official Twitter account called for a referendum by all
Muslims, Jews and Christians who trace their lineage to Palestine, and simply vote out
the usurper Zionists.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not accept
an agreement that leaves Iran as a nuclear threshold state.
That is exactly what the United States is trying to prevent. Iran has always insisted it
wants to develop its nuclear strength solely for peaceful purposes like energy and
medicine. Over time, its nuclear capacity has grown while demands for limits have
softened.
For example, Iran currently has 19,000 centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium.
The negotiating partners known as the P5+1 five permanent members of the U.N.
Security Council, and Germany want those numbers sliced. They initially tried to
limit them to 1,000 or 2,000, but now are willing to allow more, with transparent
monitoring so that even if Iran decides down the road to make a bomb, it would have
to start from a low level of capacity. That would make it so obvious that the world
would have time to respond.
Negotiations have been underway since 2003 .
Negotiations floundered until late last year, when the moderate Hassan Rouhani was
elected president of Iran. Seeing an opening, Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said hosted
secret talks between Iran and the United States at his beachfront villa.
Under the resulting interim agreement, Iran agreed to stop enrichment above 5
percent, not install more centrifuges and not increase its stockpile of uranium. In
return, Iran got a measure of relief from some sanctions.

But a final agreement has proven elusive. Even as the remainingweeks have dwindled
down, the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran still hasnot been forthcoming
about its current and past use of nuclear materials, as it promised it would be. As
aresult, the agency says it can verify that the materials it knows about havenot been
diverted for possible military use, but it cannot say conclusively thatIran does not
possess other nuclear materials that could be covertly diverted.
Back in Oman, where the latest round of talks were birthed, the parties insist the
deadline can be met. Irans deputy foreign minister on Saturday called a deal within
reach.

Carol Morello is the diplomatic correspondent for The

Washington Post, covering the State Department.
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