Iraqi: Possibility of Extending Negotiations, 'If Desired Agreement of the Leader is Not Achieved'

In response to the Supreme Leader's stance on the Lausanne agreement, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team announced that if the 'desired agreement' of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not achieved, nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group will be 'extended.' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, reiterated on Thursday, April 9, that not reaching an agreement is better than reaching a bad one, noting that 'they may say we have no more than three months; well, if it becomes four months, the sky won't fall; what's the problem? Just as they postponed the deadline by seven months at another point.' On the same day, Abbas Araqchi, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, referred to the Supreme Leader's statement and described reaching an agreement with the P5+1 within the next three months, by the end of June, as a 'difficult, complex, and precise' task. According to the IRIB news agency, Araqchi added, 'We will try to reach a conclusion even sooner than three months, but if the agreement that is desired by the Supreme Leader is not achieved, we will certainly not be constrained by time and will extend it if necessary.' This statement comes as U.S. officials had previously opposed extending nuclear negotiations with Iran before the Lausanne agreement. Meanwhile, Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister, also stated on Sunday, February 15, that his country does not agree to a third extension of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers. Iran and the P5+1 have extended the deadline for reaching a final agreement twice since the interim agreement in Geneva in November 2013. Now, following the initial agreement in Lausanne, the negotiating parties have until the end of June to draft a comprehensive final agreement. However, reports indicate that the parties still have serious disagreements on issues such as the timing of lifting or canceling Iran's economic sanctions. The Islamic Republic, as several senior officials have repeatedly emphasized, demands that all international sanctions related to the nuclear program be completely lifted as soon as the potential nuclear agreement is implemented, while the U.S. and its Western partners oppose the complete lifting of sanctions on the same day the potential nuclear agreement is signed and implemented. Araqchi also stated on Thursday that there is still a distance to reach an agreement, adding, 'It cannot yet be said with certainty whether we will reach a final agreement by July.' According to IRNA, he added, 'The other side may have excessive demands in the details... because this is the negotiating style of the West, which makes general statements and tries to express demands that were not met in the overall issue in the details.' Araqchi had previously described drafting the text of the nuclear agreement with the P5+1 as 'a very complex and difficult task.'