Iran nuke talks bust deadline again

Talks between Iran and six world powers on a final nuclear agreement will extend past their Tuesday deadline, U.S. and European officials said.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the interim nuclear agreement with Iran would be extended until Friday to allow more time for talks.

“We are continuing to negotiate for the next couple of days,” European Union foreign policy and security chief Federica Mogherini told reporters in Vienna, according to Reuters. “This does not mean we are extending our deadline.”

{mosads}Negotiators from the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China are trying to strike a deal to cut off Teheran’s path to a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting sanctions.

But the sides have encountered several last-minute obstacles, including the scope of inspections and the pace of sanctions relief.

Mogherini said there are still difficult issues to resolve but that negotiators would continue working toward a deal.

“We are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalize the agreement,” she said.

She added that some foreign ministers could leave the Vienna talks in the next several hours and return later.

The delay raises pressure on the Obama administration, which had been hoping to submit a deal to Congress by July 9 and start a 30-day clock for lawmakers to review a deal. If an agreement is submitted after Thursday, Congress will have 60 days to consider it.

Some supporters of the deal fear a longer review process will allow opponents to mobilize an effort to kill it in Congress.  

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday there is no guarantee a deal will be finalized.

“If hard choices get made, if they can meet agreement on some of these key issues, we could have an agreement this week,” he said. “But there’s no guarantee of that.”