'Very, Very, Very Tough' Iran Talks Extended as U.S. Says Restrictions on Arms, Missiles to Stay

Global powers wrestling for a historic nuclear deal with Iran gave themselves yet more time Tuesday after foreign ministers failed to bridge what one diplomat called "very, very, very tough" remaining issues.

Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany -- effectively gave themselves until Friday to agree a deal by extending the terms of a 2013 interim accord under which Iran has been curtailing its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

"Removing the remaining brackets (in the text of the agreement), this seems to be very, very, very tough," the senior diplomat said as an 11th day of talks stretched late into the night in Vienna.

But the envoy insisted the negotiations are "not an open-ended process. We've given ourselves a couple more days because we think it can be done."

This was rammed home by a second diplomat, who said the new target date -- the latest in a string of postponements in almost two years of talks seeking to end a 13-year standoff -- is the "final" one.

"It's difficult to see why and how we could go on any longer. Either this works in the next 48 hours or it doesn't," the second diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"We have never been closer, than we've ever been on this agreement, and we are still not where we need to be to finalize a deal," a senior U.S. administration official said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry remained in Vienna with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Their Russian, Chinese, French and British counterparts had already left. The latter two said they would return to the Austrian capital on Wednesday evening.

"If very tough political decisions, hard choices, can get made soon, I do believe we can get to an agreement ... it is possible," the U.S. official said.

For many observers July 9 had always been the real deadline, and the U.S. team now has its back against the wall trying to nail down the final details by then. 

If Kerry fails to hand over a deal by the end of Thursday, U.S. lawmakers will get 60 days instead of 30 to review it, which risks further complicating its implementation.

- Arms ban to remain -

The mooted deal would curb Iran's nuclear program for a decade or more in order to make any push to make nuclear weapons -- it denies any such aim -- virtually impossible.

In return painful sanctions on Iran would be progressively lifted.

Despite progress on a series of complicated annexes, negotiations have stalled on how to ease sanctions against Iran, probing allegations that in the past Tehran sought to develop nuclear arms, and ensuring Iran can continue to have a modest, peaceful nuclear program. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed there was also disagreement over the issue of lifting of a U.N. conventional arms embargo which bans sales of convention weapons such as tanks and missiles to Tehran.

"I can assure you that there remains one major problem that's related to sanctions: this is the problem of an arms embargo," Lavrov told Interfax from Vienna.

The arms embargo was not overly important as Iran had developed its own industry, but global powers "must change their approach on sanctions if they want a deal," Iran's lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi said late Tuesday, saying the U.N. ban had to be changed.

"Western nations must be prepared to give up sanctions," Araghchi said

But U.S. officials insisted there would be "ongoing restrictions on arms just like there will be ongoing restrictions regarding missiles" in any nuclear deal, which is to be endorsed by a resolution in the U.N. Security Council.

Negotiators are already drawing up a draft resolution which would also address the nuclear-related bans on arms trade and ballistic missiles, the senior administration official said.

While Iran has a right to conventional missiles "what we are concerned about is missile technology that becomes a delivery system for a nuclear weapon."