U.S. Suggests Open-Ended Iran Talks

After target for nuclear agreement is missed, White House considers extending interim pact

International powers negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran failed to meet another deadline on Tuesday, the second missed target in a week, raising the prospect of an open-ended diplomatic process over an issue on which President Barack Obama has staked his foreign-policy record.

John Kerry, in Vienna on Tuesday, has said the U.S. would 
walk away from talks if Iran didn’t make important 
concessions. Photo: CARLOS BARRIA/AP

Senior administration officials in Vienna and Washington said progress was still being made and negotiators “have never been closer” to a comprehensive deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting international sanctions. Mr. Obama has said talks would end in a deal that reflects a framework reached in April, or with no agreement at all.

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But with negotiations making little headway, the White House on Tuesday laid the groundwork for a third outcome: continuing talks while keeping in place a November 2013 interim agreement that provided Iran with limited sanctions relief in exchange for rolling back parts of its nuclear program.

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Such an outcome would allow Mr. Obama to avoid alternatives to diplomacy to confront Iran’s nuclear program, such as military force. It gives the president political cover because the idea has support from some influential Republicans—including Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—and Israel.

“We’ve got some bipartisan agreement that this is an available approach that could benefit the United States and our negotiating partners in a way that continues to keep the pressure on Iran to reach a final agreement,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, adding that the U.S. “won’t walk away from the table as long as the negotiations continue to be useful.”

New disputes emerged in Vienna, while others appeared to move toward resolution, such as the timing of sanctions relief for Iran and the inspections of its nuclear and military sites.

Iranian negotiators have increased their demands in recent days that a United Nations embargo on Tehran’s ballistic-missile program and arms trade be removed as part of a broader nuclear accord, said U.S. and European officials involved in the talks. A senior U.S. diplomat in Vienna said the Obama administration was committed to keeping them in place, at least in some form. “There will be an ongoing restriction on arms just like there will be ongoing restrictions regarding missiles,” said the diplomat.

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