Category: Iran

Photo Foreign ministers from other world powers joined Secretary of State John Kerry in an effort to reach the outlines of a nuclear accord with Iran by a midnight Tuesday deadline. Credit Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski LAUSANNE, Switzerland — With a negotiating deadline just two days away, Iranian officials on Sunday backed away from a critical element of a proposed nuclear agreement, saying they are no longer willing to ship their atomic fuel out of the country. For months, Iran tentatively agreed that it would send a large portion of its stockpile of uranium to Russia , where it would not be accessible for use in any future weapons program. But on Sunday Iran’s deputy foreign minister made a surprise comment to Iranian reporters, ruling out an agreement that involved giving up a stockpile that Iran has spent years and billions of dollars to amass. “The export of […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Photo The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, left, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran, center, and the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland — American officials said on Monday that they were still negotiating with their Iranian counterparts on one of the main issues remaining in their efforts to reach a deal on Iran ’s nuclear program — how to dispose of Iran’s big nuclear stockpile — and that shipping the atomic fuel out of the country was still a possibility. The American officials were pushing back against public statements made on Sunday by Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, that seemed to rule out an accord under which uranium would be sent abroad. Those comments represented an apparent change in position by the Iranian negotiators, who had […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

With just two days to go until a crucial deadline expires, diplomats are preparing to mount a final push to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, even as key elements of negotiations show signs of unravelling. Six foreign ministers of the P5+1 — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany — gathered for the first time late on Sunday evening in the Swiss city of Lausanne to find a common position ahead of Monday’s continuing talks . “Starting tonight there will be a very serious push from the six,” one senior western diplomat told the Financial Times on Sunday. “One thing I have noticed is that when the six are together in front of the Iranians, usually we behave in a remarkably consistent manner.” Tense discussions with Iran had reached a deadlock over the weekend on the key issue of sanctions relief. Iran demands the […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

ENLARGE Iran’s atomic energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, second left, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, second right, during negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Sunday. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Press Pool As negotiations with Iran on a nuclear deal come down to the wire, the White House is ramping up a yearlong campaign to persuade lawmakers and the public to support an agreement. In recent days, officials have tried to neutralize skeptical Democrats by arguing that opposing President Barack Obama would empower the new Republican majority, according to people familiar with the discussions. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has lined up Republicans to try to tamp down a likely political battle over any deal with Iran and scientists to defend an agreement on its technical merits. Perhaps most significant, White House officials have begun to express privately a willingness to accept legislation that gives Congress some oversight of the nuclear deal if […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

Kharg Island oil production. (Bloomberg) — Outside the boardroom of BP Plc’s headquarters on London’s swanky St. James’s Square, a display case houses the geological data from Masjid-i-Solaiman, Iran’s first oil well. The discovery of crude in 1908 laid the foundations for the company that would become British Petroleum and opened one of the richest opportunities that Western oil companies have ever enjoyed in the turbulent Middle East. Since then, the industry’s history in Iran is intertwined with CIA-backed coups, colonial exploitation and the anti-Western resentment surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Now, as Iran and the U.S. enter 11th-hour negotiations to reach a nuclear deal and ease sanctions, the Middle Eastern country is emerging again as a potential prize for Western oil companies such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Eni SpA and Total SA. The Chinese can also be expected to enter the race, while U.S. companies, more […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of Iran and six world powers met on Monday in a final push for a preliminary nuclear accord less than two days before their deadline as Tehran showed signs of backing away from previous compromise offers. For days Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China have been holding negotiations to break an impasse in negotiations aimed at stopping Tehran having the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb in exchange for an easing of international sanctions that are crippling its economy. But officials at the talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne cautioned that attempts to reach a framework accord could yet fall apart. [ID:nL6N0WV09H] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said there had been "some progress and some setbacks in the last hours". "I can’t rule out that there will be further crises in these negotiations," he told reporters in […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear program have been "tough and very serious" and the next few days will show whether Tehran is ready to make the necessary hard decisions, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s move to reach out to the leaders of the six powers on Thursday is "hopefully a sign that Iran is ready to make some of the tough decisions," the senior State Department official added on condition of anonymity. The official said that other foreign ministers from the six-power group, which includes Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia as well as the United States, will arrive in the coming days to join the talks in Lausanne, Switzerland ahead of an end-March deadline for a political framework agreement. Tehran and the powers are struggling to hammer out a political framework accord by the […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Iran and major powers are close to agreeing a two- or three-page accord with specific numbers as the basis of a resolution of a 12-year standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, officials have told Reuters. As the French and German foreign ministers arrived in Switzerland on Saturday to join talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Western and Iranian officials familiar with the negotiations cautioned that they could still fail. Kerry and Zarif have been in Lausanne for days to try to reach an outline agreement by a self-imposed deadline of March 31 between Iran on the one hand and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China on the other. "The sides are very, very close to the final step and it could be signed or agreed and announced verbally," a senior Iranian official familiar with […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ENLARGE Secretary of State John Kerry, right, talks with members of his delegation in Lausanne on Friday. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Press Pool LAUSANNE, Switzerland—With Iran nuclear talks nearing a critical deadline Tuesday, diplomats raised doubts that a meaningful deal could be reached in time even as the White House faces political hurdles in Washington to extend negotiations. Gaps between the two sides include how quickly Western nations would lift punitive sanctions against Iran, and what types of nuclear research Tehran would be allowed to continue, diplomats said. Negotiators also are grappling over access by international inspectors to Iran’s military sites, where evidence has suggested the possibility of past experiments on weapons technology. The differences between Iran and international powers are so wide that any agreement reached by Tuesday would likely be vague and wouldn’t necessarily be written down in a formal text, U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned Friday. Speaking […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

Fears That Iran Will ‘Flood’ the Oil Market Exaggerated thumbnail Oil industry experts say it is unlikely that Iran will flood the market with oil if sanctions are lifted as a result of Iranian nuclear talks, quelling fears that the talks would spook the markets. Negotiations between Iran and the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and Germany – the so-called P5+1 group – reconvene this week, with the aim of curtailing Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, in exchange for the lifting of crippling international sanctions. Iran already has large amounts of oil in storage which have been extracted, say experts. Although it is a state secret exactly how much oil Iran has stored, analysts predict it could be as much as 37 million barrels. There have been reports that an injection of hundreds of thousands of barrels a day into the oil market, which is already struggling with oversupply, could […]

Click here to view full article at peakoil.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Iran’s president spoke with the leaders of France, Britain, China and Russia on Thursday in an apparent effort to break an impasse to a nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers. He also raised the Saudi-led military operation against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen, as did U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of nuclear negotiations in Switzerland with Tehran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The United States is pushing for a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers before a March 31 deadline, and officials close to the talks said some kind of preliminary agreement was possible. However, a senior British diplomat acknowledged: "There are still important issues where no agreement has so far been possible. "Our task, therefore, for the next few days is to see if we can bridge the gaps and arrive at a political framework which could then be […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Iran is storing at least 30 million barrels of oil on its fleet of supertankers as Western sanctions continue to keep a lid on sales, tanker market sources say. World powers are trying to reach a framework deal with Tehran by the end of the month that would restrict the most sensitive aspects of Iran’s disputed atomic program in return for an easing of international sanctions. Sanctions have halved Iran’s oil exports to just over 1 million barrels per day since 2012 and hammered its economy. Higher Iranian oil exports are likely to put more pressure on weak global oil prices. Iran has parked unsold crude oil stocks off its coast, mainly onboard tankers belonging to its national carrier NITC. One shipping industry source said 15 of NITC’s Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC), each capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil, were deployed for floating […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski Buy AP Photo Reprints Interactives Latest News LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran entered a critical phase on Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meeting his Iranian counterpart less than a week away from an end-of-month deadline to secure the outline of a deal. With the clock ticking, Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and their teams huddled Thursday in the Swiss resort town of Lausanne on Lake Geneva trying to overcome still significant gaps after nearly two years of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany. The top diplomats from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia are expected to join the talks if the U.S. and Iran are close to an agreement. U.S. officials say the March 31 deadline is achievable but remains uncertain. En route to […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowed in Mashhad, eastern Iran, Saturday. ENLARGE Photo: European Pressphoto Agency LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Talks over Iran’s nuclear program have hit a stumbling block a week before a key deadline because Tehran has failed to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past, say people close to the negotiations. In response, these people say, the U.S. and its diplomatic partners are revising their demands on Iran to address these concerns before they agree to finalize a nuclear deal, which would repeal U.N. sanctions against the country. “Progress has been very limited,” Yukiya Amano, who heads the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “No more new issues” have been addressed. Secretary of State John Kerry is resuming talks on Thursday in Lausanne with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

Talk of progress in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers has had oil traders on edge. With large amounts of Iranian oil already in storage , an injection of hundreds of thousands of barrels a day into the oil market already struggling with a crude overhang could depress prices further. The prospect of a wave of Iranian crude exports has already hit internationally traded Brent: after rebounding to $60 a barrel last month, it now hovers around $55 a barrel amid expectations of a deal by March 31. “There is nothing that cannot be resolved,” Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s president, said on Saturday, according to the Iranian state news agency. But as negotiators from Iran and the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany, the so-called P5+1 group, reconvene this week, questions remain around what any deal, full or partial, could mean for the oil market. Sanctions […]

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

Technicians stand at an oil and methanol installation on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iran. The country exports about 1 million to 1.1 million barrels of crude per day, down from 2.5 million before the U.S. and European Union added oil sanctions in mid-2012, IEA data show. Photographer: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty images (Bloomberg) — Lifting oil sanctions on Iran could hit global markets long before the nation starts pumping more crude. That’s because the OPEC member has been stockpiling oil onshore and in supertankers in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While estimates of the hoard by shipbrokers and government officials vary from as little as 7 million barrels to as much as 35 million, Barclays Plc and Societe Generale SA predict this crude would be first to be sold abroad if there’s an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. and […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

PARIS — Fearing that the Obama administration may not take what they consider to be a tough enough stand in the next round of negotiations on a nuclear deal with Iran , senior Israeli officials held talks in Paris on Monday with senior members of the French government and will go to London on Tuesday in an attempt to influence the final terms of any agreement. France and Britain are among the six world powers — along with the United States, Russia, China and Germany — that are negotiating with Iran on an accord that would require Tehran to submit to verifiable limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of United Nations sanctions, as well as separate sets of sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. Negotiations are scheduled to resume later this week in Lausanne, Switzerland, with negotiators working against a self-imposed […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Photo Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech Saturday, said Iran’s establishment favored negotiations over the country’s nuclear program. Credit Office of the Supreme Leader, via European Pressphoto Agency TEHRAN — A coterie of Iran ’s hard-line Shiite Muslim clerics and Revolutionary Guards commanders is usually vocal on the subject of the Iranian nuclear program , loudly proclaiming the country’s right to pursue its interests and angrily denouncing the United States. But as the United States and Iran prepare to restart nuclear talks this week, the hard-liners have been keeping a low profile. “They have been remarkably quiet,” said Nader Karimi Joni, a former member of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group. Their silence is a result of state policies intended by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , to seriously try to find a solution through negotiations. Ayatollah Khamenei has largely supported the nuclear talks […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Iranian budget planners place less emphasis on oil for new year that began March 21. File Photo by Maryam Rahmanian/UPI Iran’s economy emerged from recession in December, and Finance Minister Ali Tayebnia said the momentum should continue into the new year, which for Iran began Saturday. "We predict a better situation in economy for the upcoming year," he said. Sanctions imposed on Iran’s energy sector curb the country’s ability to generate revenue from oil and gas sales. The Central Bank of Iran, however, said a nine-month growth rate of 3.6 percent represents an increase of $54 billion for the nation’s economy. When he wrapped up his mission to Iran last month, Martin Cerisola, assistant regional director for the International Monetary Fund, warned "the sharp drop in global oil prices and an uncertain external environment" presents significant challenges to Iran’s economic future. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during weekend celebrations […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

ENLARGE Following surgery in Tehran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is visited by President Hasan Rouhani, Sept. 8, 2014. Photo: Getty Images Negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 powers led by the U.S. are racing against a March 31 deadline to conclude a nuclear deal in Lausanne, Switzerland. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Saturday that negotiators had made “genuine progress” but that “important gaps remain.” Yet what happens if the Iranian leadership that the U.S. and others are dealing with now is not in place to implement any agreement? Two recent developments suggest that the Islamic Republic may be heading toward one of its cyclical spasms of intense factional competition. The outcome could derail any deal, or leave the West committed to an agreement that is even less verifiable or useful than it might be today. There is scant evidence that the Obama administration is taking this into […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

ENLARGE U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, before a negotiation session with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, right, over Iran’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Nuclear talks between Iran and six powers are set to go down to the wire, with negotiations breaking up on Friday and expected to resume again just days before the March 31 deadline for a political deal. A spokeswoman for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he will meet somewhere in Europe on Saturday with the British, French and German foreign ministers and then return to Washington. “We’ve had a series of intensive discussions with Iran this week, and given where we are in the negotiations, it’s an important time for high-level consultations with our partners in these talks,” Marie Harf said. Two diplomats at the talks said that the likely day for negotiations […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – France’s foreign minister said on Saturday that his country wanted an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program that was sufficiently robust to guarantee that Tehran could not acquire an atomic bomb. Iran and six world powers – the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China – suspended negotiations on a nuclear agreement on Friday and are set to meet again next week to break a deadlock over sensitive atomic research and lifting of sanctions. France has been demanding more stringent restrictions on the Iranians under any deal than the other Western delegations and at one point during the talks French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius phoned his team to ensure it made no more concessions, officials said. The Europeans and U.S. Secretary of State Kerry plan to meet in London on Saturday to help bridge differences, negotiators said, before a end-March deadline for a political framework […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ENLARGE U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, before a negotiation session with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, right, over Iran’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland—France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Obama administration as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end. President Barack Obama called French President François Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents “reaffirmed their commitment” to a deal “while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said. French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on key elements—particularly the speed of lifting United Nations sanctions and the pledge to constrain Iran’s nuclear research […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, left center, talks with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, after a Thursday morning negotiation session in Lausanne with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry over Iran’s nuclear program. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images LAUSANNE, Switzerland—When international sanctions on Iran would be lifted has emerged as one of the largest remaining stumbling blocks to an agreement to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program by a March 31 deadline, according to U.S., European and Iranian officials. Tehran’s negotiators in Switzerland, according to these diplomats, have hardened their position that United Nations sanctions on their country be repealed at the front end of any deal reached this month with the U.S. and other global powers. The U.S. and its European allies are demanding the U.N.’s sanctions be suspended or terminated in a phased time-frame over years. They believe sanctions relief should only come […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

To make up for lost growth, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called for conglomerates controlled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and conservative religious foundations to give up their tax-exempt status and pull their weight. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an implacable opponent of America and its allies for most of his rule, will have to concede ground if he’s to end a nuclear dispute that has spanned three U.S. presidencies. Khamenei was selected as guardian of the mainly Shiite Islamic Republic on the death in 1989 of revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini as the country reeled from a newly concluded eight-year war with U.S. ally Iraq. Under his tutelage, Iran sparred with neighboring Sunni states for regional primacy, while sanctions deepened its isolation and crippled the economy. Through it all, Khamenei, 75, stressed self-sufficiency, pious loyalty and animosity toward the U.S. — the “Great […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said that negotiators were still grappling with difficult issues in the talks on limiting Iran ’s nuclear program , but that they had made some headway. “We are pushing some tough issues, but we made progress,” Mr. Kerry told reporters in Lausanne during a break in the talks. It was not yet clear, Mr. Kerry said, whether the United States team would return to Washington on Friday or remain here through the weekend to continue negotiating with the Iranians. Iranian officials have spoken optimistically about the chances for sealing an accord in the coming days. The Iranian statements may be intended to build public pressure on the United States and its allies to make concessions, as well as to strike a positive tone for the Iranian public. But the United States and some of its European negotiating partners have […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

(Bloomberg) — World powers have offered to suspend U.S. and European oil sanctions against Iran within months of signing an agreement if the Islamic Republic adopts strict limits verified by intrusive inspections of its nuclear program for at least a decade, according to U.S. and European officials. Limits on Iran’s oil exports would be suspended after Iran complies with an initial set of restrictions, such as disconnecting the majority of its centrifuges and submitting them for verification, according to the officials who spoke to Bloomberg News on condition of anonymity to describe the private negotiations under way in Lausanne, Switzerland. Negotiating teams from six powers — the U.S., U.K,, France, Germany, China and Russia — are working toward a self-imposed March 31 goal to reach the framework of a nuclear agreement with Iran. Both sides are seeking a final deal by the end of June laying out steps that […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

Iran’s oil industry installations are seen in Mahshahr, Khuzestan province, southern Iran. The country produced 2.8 million barrels of oil a day last month, compared with 3.6 million at the end of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Photographer: Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images (Bloomberg) — Iran says it could add a million barrels to daily oil production shortly after a deal to lift sanctions is reached, reclaiming the position of OPEC’s second-largest supplier. While the timing of such a move would be at least months away because the sanctions would be rolled back slowly, industry observers largely agree that the capacity is there. Yet going further than that and adding a second million barrels — as the government has said it plans to do — will prove a much bigger challenge. It would take some five years and tens of billions of dollars of investment, according to two former […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

It’s not just Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders who are scrutinizing the Iran negotiations. Oil traders are, too. That’s because there’s already an oil glut, and an Iran deal could lift sanctions and mean even more oil. “Even the thought that Iranian oil could be unleashed on the global market is, you know, getting people to sell first and ask questions later,” says Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst and oil trader at The Price Group in Chicago. He says in the last couple of days traders are trying to read the geo-political tea-leaves, and some think they see a deal coming with Iran. “Especially when you have Secretary of State John Kerry standing next to the energy secretary of the United States in on the talks,” he says. “Why would you have the energy secretary in on the talks if you weren’t really getting prepared for more […]

Click here to view full article at peakoil.com

Gulf Keystone Petroleum expects production to ramp up in Kurdish north of Iraq. Photo courtesy Gulf Keystone Petroleum Production from oil operations in Kurdish Iraq is expected to increase following a payment from the regional government, Gulf Keystone Petroleum said. The company said Wednesday it resumed production from the Shaikan reserve area in the Kurdish north of Iraq after receiving payments for future crude oil sales. Production is now expected to increase to levels consistent with the installed capacity of 40,000 barrels of oil per day. Gulf Keystone was upbeat when, in December, the Kurdish and Iraqi central governments brokered a deal ending a simmering impasse over who controls what parts of the oil sector in the country. Operations were suspended in February amid a payment row with the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. "Over recent weeks we have maintained a flexible and prudent approach, ensuring that we can maximize […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Iran and the United States issued contrasting assessments Tuesday on their progress toward an agreement to limit Iran ’s nuclear program as Energy Secretary Ernest J. Moniz met here with his Iranian counterpart. In comments to the Iranian news media, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that 90 percent of the technical issues had been worked out. Mr. Salehi said he hoped to resolve a remaining “point of difference” in a meeting Tuesday afternoon with Mr. Moniz. A senior American official was far more cautious in comments to reporters Tuesday morning. “We have definitely made progress in terms of identifying technical options for each of the major areas,” said the official, who declined to be identified by name under the protocol for briefing reporters. “There is no way around it: We still have a ways to go,” the official […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A possible deal over Iran’s nuclear program that would phase out economic sanctions against Tehran is unlikely to flood world markets with more oil any time soon, despite Iran’s declared intention to claw back market share lost because of the curbs. Negotiators are still working out details of the deal they aim to seal by the end of June, but it would almost certainly lift sanctions only in stages, deferring even a partial return of Iranian crude exports until at least 2016, according to market experts, former U.S. officials, and Western diplomats. Progress in talks in Switzerland this month has contributed to a more than 10 percent slide in oil prices over the past week as some traders and analysts brace for up to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude hitting markets, potentially doubling the estimated global supply surplus. Many focus on how […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

Central Bank of Iran reports modest economic growth despite pressure from Western sanctions. UPI/Maryam Rahmanian Iran’s economy emerged from recession in late 2014, though sanctions still curb the country’s ability to generate revenue from oil and gas sales. The Central Bank of Iran, however, said a nine-month growth rate of 3.6 percent represents an increase in $54 billion. Iranian budget negotiators are working on a draft for a new year that begins Saturday that envisions less dependency on oil revenue. When he wrapped up his mission to Iran last month, Martin Cerisola, assistant regional director for the International Monetary Fund, warned "the sharp drop in global oil prices and an uncertain external environment" presents significant challenges to Iran’s economic future . Sanctions on Iranian oil exports and other parts of the economy resulted in an economic contraction of 5.8 percent in 2012-13. For fiscal year 2013-14, the World Bank […]

Click here to view full article at www.upi.com

(Bloomberg) — Iran could raise oil exports by 1 million barrels a day if international sanctions were lifted, its oil minister said, as talks resumed with the U.S. over its nuclear program. “If sanctions are lifted, we can raise our exports by one million barrels per day within a few months,” Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Monday in Assaluyeh, Iran. The Persian Gulf nation shipped 1.2 million barrels a day last month, the International Energy Agency said in a March 13 report. Iran and world powers are negotiating an agreement to end a decade-long dispute over the Persian Gulf country’s nuclear program. Diplomats from the U.S. and Iran, working toward an end-March deadline, resumed talks Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland. “If we get an announcement of a framework deal within the next couple of weeks, obviously from a market psychology, we’re going to have a bearish knee-jerk reaction,” Mike […]

Click here to view full article at www.bloomberg.com

ENLARGE An Iranian worker at an oil refinery south of the capital Tehran. Direct sanctions on international purchases of Iranian oil, enacted in 2012, have gutted Iran’s exports, cutting crude sales in half to between 1 million to 1.2 million barrels a day over the past year. Photo: Associated Press Iran, the U.S. and its allies are pushing ahead with talks over a nuclear deal that would change many things—perhaps none faster than the price of oil. Iranian exports in recent years have been essentially capped by Western sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. A deal easing those sanctions could eventually translate into half a million barrels or more in Iranian crude heading into a currently glutted global market, analysts estimate. With global crude prices already under pressure, a deal could quickly knock them lower. Some traders even cited the resumption of talks this week between […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

ENLARGE Supporters of the Iranian opposition protest ahead of the Iran nuclear talks held in Lausanne, Switzerland, during a rally in Brussels on Monday. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Iranian diplomats voiced concerns in a meeting Monday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about a letter sent by Republican U.S. lawmakers to Tehran’s leadership this month in which they threatened to block any agreement reached on Iran’s nuclear program, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. The letter wasn’t “helpful” to the negotiations, said a senior U.S. official, and was raised in talks by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif with Mr. Kerry during roughly five hours of meetings at the Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne on Monday. But the American diplomat stressed the U.S. and Iranian sides remained committed to forging a comprehensive agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear program by a March 31 diplomatic deadline. The official added that […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Efforts to reach a political agreement on Iran’s nuclear program by the end of the month intensified on Tuesday as negotiations between the United States and Iran resumed, and Western officials warned that tough issues remained unresolved. The U.S. and Iranian delegations led by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began another round of talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne after the Iranians returned overnight from Brussels where they had met European foreign ministers. Senior European officials were expected in Lausanne later on Tuesday, with foreign ministers possibly joining them at the end of the week if talks advance. A Western diplomat said "we’re still not there yet" on reaching an end-March deadline for a framework agreement between Iran and six major powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. "We’ll see what happens […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif resumed nuclear talks on Monday in the Swiss city of Lausanne to try to narrow gaps before a March 31 deadline for a political agreement. The meeting included U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who also met on Sunday to negotiate technical details on how to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Kerry has urged Iran to make concessions that would allow six world powers to reach a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program. The parties have set a June 30 deadline to finalize an accord. Iran and major powers will meet this week in Lausanne but the date has not been announced yet. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton ; Writing by Parisa […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Western powers are hoping for concessions from Tehran that could help clinch a political agreement in nuclear talks this week after the United States and European powers voiced a willingness to compromise on suspending U.N. sanctions, officials said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had been due to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, later on Sunday to try to break the logjam ahead of a crucial round of talks between Iran and six major powers. But a senior U.S. State Department official later said that meeting would be delayed until Monday due to extensive U.S.-Iranian consultations earlier on Sunday between nuclear and Foreign Ministry officials. Kerry has urged Iran to take decisions now to enable them to clinch a political framework agreement for a nuclear deal with Tehran that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ENLARGE U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, at an economic development meeting in Egypt on Sunday. Photo: Reuters BRUSSELS—U.S. and Iranian negotiators set to resume talks Monday are hoping to seal a tentative political agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, though Western diplomats said serious negotiations over substance would still be needed in the months ahead. An announcement of a political agreement before an end-of-March deadline, could spur expectations that Iran and the six-nation group is on track for a deal—an advance they hope would buy them fresh time to reach a final, detailed nuclear accord by June 30. Any such political understanding that emerges in the coming days would fall short of the goal the two sides set when the diplomacy was extended in November to complete the negotiations by the end of March. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Switzerland on Sunday ahead of meetings with […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday on the eve of fresh talks with Iran over its nuclear-power program that it was unclear whether an interim could be deal reached by the end of the month. "I can’t tell you whether or not we can get a deal," Kerry told a news conference. The United States and five other major powers will resume negotiations with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland on Sunday ahead of a deadline at the end of March for a framework deal, with a final agreement in June. On next week’s Israeli election, Kerry said the United States hoped that whatever the outcome it would help push the peace process with Palestinians forward. Opinion polls show Israel’s center-left opposition is poised for an upset victory in the parliamentary elections over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party. The United States "remains hopeful […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

ENLARGE German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said during a visit to Washington that the letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran’s leaders is affecting talks over the country’s nuclear program. Photo: Reuters BERLIN—German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday a letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran’s leaders has complicated talks over Iran’s nuclear program by allowing Tehran to claim the West is not negotiating in good faith. Mr. Steinmeier, whose country is among the group of six nations negotiating with Iran, said the March 9 letter warning that a nuclear deal may not last beyond the Obama Administration injected a new element of distrust into the already difficult talks. “It would have been difficult enough without the letter of the 47,” Mr. Steinmeier said in an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington. “Now it has become somewhat more difficult.” […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

TEHRAN — Iran ’s highest leader issued a sharp response Thursday to a letter to the country’s leadership by Republican lawmakers, deriding it as an indication that Washington is “disintegrating” from within. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , Iran’s supreme leader, said the letter warning that any nuclear deal could be scrapped by a new president was “a sign of a decline in political ethics and the destruction of the American establishment from within.” The statement was posted on his website. Mr. Khamenei, who will have the final say in Iran over a nuclear deal, characterized the open letter written by 47 Republican senators on Monday as a reflection of Washington’s decadence. “All countries, according to the international norms, remain faithful to their commitments even after their governments change, but the American senators are officially announcing that at the end of the term of their current government, their commitments will be […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

ENLARGE International Atomic Energy Agency Deputy Director General Tero Varjoranta photographed at Vienna’s Schwechat airport on his return from Iran last month. Photo: Associated Press Iran and the United Nations atomic agency exchanged additional information about Tehran’s past nuclear work on Monday and will meet again next month, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday, but there was little sign of a sudden breakthrough. Talks between Iran and the IAEA are aimed at clearing up questions on whether Iran’s past work was linked to nuclear weapons research. U.S. and European officials have said progress is needed in the IAEA discussions to help seal a separate nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers on Tehran’s future nuclear activities. An IAEA team led by Tero Varjoranta, the agency’s deputy chief, held a day of technical meetings with Iranian officials on Monday, the IAEA said in a brief statement. The agency […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com

WASHINGTON — The open letter that 47 Senate Republicans sent to Iran’s leadership on Monday warning about making a nuclear agreement with President Obama is forcing Democrats to choose between confronting Tehran and rallying around Mr. Obama as he searches for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. Democrats say that as concerned as they are about an emerging deal with Iran, Republicans’ extraordinary moves to undermine Mr. Obama’s efforts to reach an agreement are weakening their resolve to cross party lines and challenge their own president. “I think Republicans have made it harder for us to approach this in a careful and bipartisan way,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who has been a leader in his party on pushing for congressional review of the administration’s policies on war and sanctions, and is a sponsor of a bill to review any removal of congressionally imposed sanctions on […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Members of Congress rise to applaud during a GOP-sponsored address by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Republican senators, like Netanyahu, hope to scuttle a pending nuclear deal with Iran. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call / Getty Images There’s a charming naiveté to the open letter [PDF] by 47 Republican senators that condescendingly seeks to explain features of the U.S. constitutional system to Iran’s leaders that they otherwise “may not fully understand.” The missive warns that, with respect to “your nuclear negotiations with our government … any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by the Congress” could be revoked by the next president “with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.” Beyond the amusing inaccuracies about U.S. parliamentary order , it seems there are some features of the nuclear negotiations that the signatory senators don’t fully understand […]

Click here to view full article at america.aljazeera.com

WASHINGTON — The fractious debate over a possible nuclear deal with Iran escalated on Monday as 47 Republican senators warned Iran against making an agreement with President Obama and the White House accused them of undercutting foreign policy. In an exceedingly rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the Republicans sent an open letter addressed to “leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” declaring that any agreement could be reversed by the next president “with the stroke of a pen.” The letter appeared aimed at unraveling an agreement even as negotiators grow close to reaching it. Mr. Obama, working with leaders of five other world powers, argues that the emerging agreement would be the best way to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, while critics from both parties contend that it would be a dangerous charade that would still leave Iran with the opportunity to eventually build weapons […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

ENLARGE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, poses for photographers with Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), to his right, last week when he spoke to a joint session of Congress. Photo: Getty Images A classic quandary facing any Congress is deciding just how deeply to get involved in the making of foreign policy. It’s an area where the president usually is given wide berth, and lawmakers traditionally are wary of getting too invested on the front end of tough international decisions, because that means they own the messy consequences of a bad decision on the back end. Yet at the moment, the Republicans running Congress are planting their flag firmly on the side of demanding not just a say in, but a right to veto, any coming nuclear deal with Iran. This raises a basic question: Could Congress blow up international negotiations led by […]

Click here to view full article at www.wsj.com