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No breakthrough in Iran talks as another deadline extension is likely

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With only hours until the deadline for the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna is reached, a breakthrough seems highly unlikely as major gaps are reported to remain between Iran and the P5+1 countries (The USA, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China).

The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), an Iranian Government-controlled news agency, quoted a source as saying, “Considering the short time left until the deadline and number of issues that needed to be discussed and resolved, it is impossible to reach a final and comprehensive deal” by tonight’s deadline.

Speaking on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry told the media that there were still “serious gaps which we’re working to close”.

The Guardian reported that Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond hinted that an extension to the talks was possible. He reportedly remarked “At the moment we’re focused on the last push … to try and get this across the line. Of course if we’re not able to do it, we’ll then look at where we go from there, but at the moment everybody’s talking about how we are going to try and bridge that gap and move things forward with the Iranians.”

He added, “I wouldn’t want to give any false hopes here. We’re still quite a long way apart and there are some very tough and complex issues to deal with but we’re all focused right now on trying to get that deal done”

A number of reports overnight suggest that instead of a straightforward extension, a “political agreement” might be announced that covers only very broad principles and areas of agreement while leaving the current gaps unbridged. This would then be followed by several months of more negotiations to try and achieve an actual technical agreement on details, amounting to practically the same thing as a formal extension.

The deadline for the nuclear negotiations is tonight at 23:00 GMT, midnight in Vienna.