"Rien Ne Va Plus" - Iran nuclear talks stall over 'right to enrich' uranium.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" - Iran nuclear talks stall over 'right to enrich' uranium.(Fr24).

France and Iran ratcheted up the rhetoric on Thursday as world powers struggled to finalise an interim deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for relief from sanctions, while Tehran insisted that any deal struck in Geneva must acknowledge its "right" to enrich uranium.

The sticking points in the dispute include the six powers’ demand for a shutdown of the Arak heavy-water reactor project and the extent of sanctions relief on the table, as well as Iran's insistence on an acknowledgement of its "right to enrich" uranium for energy purposes – a right the United States, France and other Western powers have refused to acknowledge.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said that “enrichment is our red line, but we can discuss the level and the amount”.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that the issue of whether Iran will be allowed to enrich uranium in the longer term would not be decided in the interim deal.

A senior Iranian delegation member, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Tehran understood that not all oil and banking sanctions could be removed “in one go”, but that enrichment was a key requirement and that any deal “should have a paragraph on it", adding: “If that element is not there, there will be no deal.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hinted at a possible way around this issue last weekend – Iran could insist on its own right to enrich uranium without requiring others to explicitly recognise it.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who spoke out against a draft deal floated at the Nov. 7-9 negotiating round, was asked by France 2 television on Thursday if there could be a deal during this latest round of negotiations.

“I hope so," Fabius said. "But this agreement can only be possible based on firmness. For now the Iranians have not been able to accept the position of the six [nations]. I hope they will accept it.”

In what appeared to be a response targeted at France, Araqchi said: “We have lost our trust... We cannot enter serious talks until the trust is restored. But that doesn’t mean that we will stop negotiations.”

Asked how trust could be restored, he said: “If they (the six powers) create one front, and stick with united words.”Read the full story here.