France warned of serious stumbling blocks to a long-sought deal over Iran's nuclear programme as foreign ministers from the Islamic state and six world powers extended negotiations into a third day on Saturday to end a decade-old standoff.
As the talks stretched on, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there was no certainty they would succeed in nailing down an interim deal that would begin to defuse fears of a covert Iranian advance towards nuclear arms capability.
"As I speak to you, I cannot say there is any certainty that we can conclude," Fabius said on France Inter radio, stressing that France could not accept a "sucker's deal".
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the talks have achieved "very good progress" but important issues remained unresolved and he did not know whether a deal could be clinched by the end of the day.
"We are very conscious of the fact that real momentum has built up in these negotiations and there is now real concentration on these negotiations and so we have to do everything we can to seize the moment," he told reporters.
Among the sticking points, Fabius said, was a call for Iran to halt operations at its Arak research reactor - a potential producer of bomb-grade plutonium - while the negotiating process goes on, as well as questions about Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 20 percent of fissile purity.
Both issues are at the heart of Western concerns that the Islamic Republic is stockpiling enriched uranium not for civilian nuclear power stations, as Tehran says, but rather potential fuel for atomic bombs.
"We are for an agreement, that's clear. But the agreement has got to be serious and credible. The initial text made progress but not enough," Fabius said.
Source: Reuters
