US Insists on Two-Stage Nuclear Deal in Defiance of Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US secretary of state said an extension to a deadline for reaching a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear program will be an option if the parties manage to outline a general agreement, an idea Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has opposed.
"If we're not able to make the fundamental decisions that have to be made over the course of the next weeks, literally, I think it would be impossible to extend," John Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview airing Sunday.
"I don't think we would want to extend at that point. Either you make the decisions to prove your program is a peaceful one, or if you're unable to do that, it may tell a story that none of us want to hear," he added.
Kerry's remarks came after Ayatollah Khamenei made it clear on Sunday that any nuclear deal between Iran and world powers should be implementable, stressing that "no deal will be better than a bad one," including a two-stage agreement.
The Leader expressed outright opposition to the idea of a two-stage nuclear deal, which entails consensus on the generalities at first and requires agreement on details at a later time.
“Such a deal is not acceptable, because our experience of the opposite side’s behavior shows that mere agreement on the generalities will become a tool for making successive excuses over details.”
“If there is to be any deal, it must have a single stage and include generalities and details together,” the Leader explained.
Ayatollah Khamenei insisted that the contents of a final nuclear deal should be “clear, transparent and not open to interpretation” and prevent the other side from inventing excuses for various issues.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.
