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Home News Global Security Preliminary Talks on Iran’s Nuclear Program Break Up for Consultations
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NPSGlobal Foundation, 13 Dic 2013.

Global Security

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that preliminary talks on negotiations to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon broke up to allow all sides to carry out consultations but one report said Tehran walked out to protest a move by Washington to expand a sanctions blacklist.

“There is every expectation that talks are going to continue in the next few days, and that we will proceed to the full implementation of that plan,” Kerry told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, according to a State Department transcript.

The Reuters news agency earlier quoted European Union diplomatic sources as saying that Tehran withdrew from the talks in response to Washington’s decision to expand a black list of companies and individuals accused of doing business with Iran in violation of existing sanctions. A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman later told Reuters that the actions taken by Washington threatened the agreement.

Over four days negotiators from Iran met with representatives of the group of six countries involved in the talks on Iran’s nuclear program, including Germany and the five members of the U.N. Security Council - China, France, Great Britain, Russia and the United States. The talks in Vienna ended Thursday after four days.

Iran and the six governments in late November agreed to undertake in-depth negotiations over six months, aimed at confirming that Iran`s nuclear capabilities would only be used for peaceful purposes. Iran agreed to halt and rollback some critical aspects of its nuclear program in return for a slight reduction in the economic sanctions imposed for its failure to abide by U.N. Security Council resolutions since 2006.

Kerry, who Thursday met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a press briefing that the talks in Vienna were part of a normal process for developing an implementation plan.

“We’re making progress, but I think we’re at a point in those talks where folks feel a need to consult, take a moment,” he said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Reuters that the action by Washington to expand the sanctions blacklist violated the spirit of the agreement reached with Iran in late November. She said widening the blacklist could complicate the fulfillment of the agreement.

The U.S. House of Representative was discussing the possibility of adopting a bipartisan resolution defining the key characteristics of an acceptable deal with Iran. Kerry has previously urged Congress to avoid taking steps that might upset negotiations, giving negotiators a chance to work out a deal.

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