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John Kerry warns that US may pull out of Iran nuclear talks

February 22, 2015 at 3:13 pm

The US Secretary of State said Saturday that the US has no intention to extend the deadline of the nuclear talks, which is currently set for March 31 2015, and is ready to pull out of the negotiations table.

John Kerry told a press conference on Saturday at the US embassy in London that “there are still significant gaps, there is still a distance to travel,” and that the United States may pull out of the talks because of “substantial differences of opinion.”

“President Barack Obama has no inclination whatsoever to extend these talks beyond the period that has been set out,” Kerry said, adding that Obama “is fully prepared to stop these talks if he feels that they are not being met with the kind of productive decision-making necessary to prove that a program is in fact peaceful.”

Kerry said that there was no “divergence whatsoever in what we believe is necessary for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is going to be peaceful.”

An Iranian official on Friday said that Iran is pursuing changes to accelerate nuclear negotiations, where topics are handled in details.

“We are pursuing changes in the procedures of the negotiations to accelerate the nuclear talks,” said Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, according to Iranian television.

Kerry will fly from London on Sunday to Geneva to meet the meet the Iranian delegation including Iran’s Atomic Energy Authority President Ali Akbar Salehi, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani’s brother, Hossein Fereydoun.

Iran and the world powers group called the P5+1 agreed on Nov. 2014 in Vienna to extend nuclear talks until the end of July 1, 2015 after failing to meet the Nov. 24 deadline for a permanent settlement.

Tehran agreed to limit certain aspects of its controversial nuclear program in exchange for some relief in international sanctions under a deal reached in Nov. 2013 in Geneva.