WarSclerotic

Iran is backtracking from an interim nuclear agreement reached three months ago with world powers, Western officials suggested on Sunday, as U.S. and Iranian officials said talks on a final accord would likely run past the June 30 deadline.

As the deadline nears, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif prepared to head home for consultations before returning to push for a breakthrough.

Iranian media said Zarif’s trip was planned in advance. Still, the fact that he was leaving the talks so close to what had been the deadline reflected both that the talks had a way to go and his need to get instructions on how to proceed on issues where the sides remain apart — among them how much access Tehran should give to U.N. experts monitoring Iran’s compliance to any deal.

The United States insists on more intrusive monitoring than Iran is ready to give. With these and other disputes still unresolved, the likelihood that the Tuesday target deadline for a deal could slip by was growing even before the U.S. confirmation.

The dispute over access surfaced again Sunday, with Iranian Gen. Masoud Jazayeri saying that any inspection by foreigners of Iran’s military centers is prohibited.

He said the attempt by the U.S. and its allies to “obtain Iran’s military information for years … by the pressure of sanctions” will not succeed.

But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who joined the talks Friday, said Iran’s “nuclear activities, no matter where they take place,” must be verifiable.

Officials said they could not speculate on how many days’ extension the talks would need. But Zarif told reporters that he planned to come back only on Tuesday, the day the negotiations were originally supposed to end with a deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Zarif met in Vienna for their third encounter since Saturday. The foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany came and then went, or planned to leave, in another reflection that the sides were not yet close to a deal.

For weeks, all seven nations at the negotiating table insisted that Tuesday remains the formal deadline for a deal. But with time running out, a senior U.S. official acknowledged that was unrealistic.

“Given the dates, and that we have some work to do … the parties are planning to remain in Vienna beyond June 30 to continue working,” said the official, who demanded anonymity in line with State Department practice.

Steinmeier told German media: “I am convinced that if there is no agreement, everyone loses. Iran would remain isolated. A new arms race in a region that is already riven by conflict could be the dramatic consequence.”

Both sides recognize that there is leeway to extend to July 9. As part of an agreement with the U.S. Congress, lawmakers then have 30 days to review the deal before suspending congressional sanctions.

But postponement beyond that would double the congressional review period to 60 days, giving both Iranian and U.S. critics more time to work on undermining an agreement.

Arguing for more time to allow the U.S. to drive a harder bargain, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a fierce opponent of the talks — weighed in on Sunday against “this bad agreement, which is becoming worse by the day.”

“It is still not too late to go back and insist on demands that will genuinely deny Iran the ability to arm itself with nuclear weapons,” he said.

The goal of the talks involving Iran and the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia is a deal that would crimp Tehran’s capacity to make nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. Iran insists it does not want such arms but is bargaining in exchange for sanctions relief.

On Saturday, diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran was considering a U.S.-backed plan for it to send enriched uranium to another country for sale as reactor fuel, a step that would resolve one of several outstanding issues.

Securing a historic agreement would end a more than 12-year nuclear standoff between Iran and the West and open the door to suspending sanctions that have crippled Tehran’s economy. It could also help ease the diplomatic isolation for an Iran that has become increasingly assertive across the region.

Highlighting how much work remains in the nuclear negotiations, British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond said on arrival in Vienna that major challenges remained, including on the parameters already agreed in April in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“There are a number of different areas where we still have major differences of interpretation in detailing what was agreed in Lausanne,” Hammond told reporters.

“There is going to have to be some give or take if we are to get this done in the next few days. No deal is better than a bad deal.”

Other Western officials echoed Hammond’s remarks, saying some of the backtracking involved the mechanics of monitoring Iranian compliance with proposed limits on nuclear activities.

“It feels like we haven’t advanced on the technical issues and even gone back on some,” a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Another Western official traced the apparent backtracking to a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week, in which he ruled out freezing sensitive nuclear work in the country for a long time.

“His speech last week seems aimed at constraining [Iranian negotiators’] flexibility in the last stretch of the talks, as he has done at a number of key intervals over the last two years,” a Western diplomat told Reuters, citing an internal government intelligence assessment of Khamenei’s speech.

But he added that Khamenei’s tendency to issue vague directives “could leave the negotiators with some limited room to play with and to find creative solutions that could help wrap up the diplomatic process.”

The main differences are on the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Iran and on the nature of monitoring mechanisms to ensure Tehran does not cheat on any agreement.

U.S. and European negotiators also want to ensure there is a mechanism for restoring sanctions if Tehran fails to meet its commitments under any future accord.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Sunday that reaching a final agreement with Iran on its nuclear program may happen “in the coming days.”

“As I said this morning, we will stick to the deadline of the 30th [of June], ready to interpret it in a flexible way, as we did already in Lausanne,” Mogherini said.

“It was needed to have a couple of days more, that is not the end of the world, but it is very clear that the deadline is going to stay end of June, beginning of July, we’re going to finalize it, hopefully, in the coming days. So, no extension, we all agreed on that, everyone is very much aware of the fact that we have conditions now, to close the deal, to close a good deal, and we have to use these hours, these days to do it. Postponement is not an option.”

Some Western diplomats also say that no meaningful sanctions relief should be granted before tangible progress is made in clearing questions about possible military dimensions of past Iranian nuclear research.

Iran is stalling the U.N. atomic agency’s efforts to dispel worries about the possible military dimensions of its nuclear past, an issue major powers say should be addressed if sanctions are to be fully lifted under a nuclear deal.