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Instead of agreement, Iran nuclear negotiators may issue statement: source

Xinhua, April 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Negotiation over Iran's nuclear program still have uncertainties, with some differences remained to be solved, a diplomat source said.

The negotiators will probably announce a joint statement later at around midnight Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, but the statement will not be very specific, the source told Xinhua, just hours before the March 31 deadline for a framework agreement.

"We have made some progresses, but the progresses are slower than we expected," the source said, adding that unless very dramatic things happen during the last hours of Tuesday, this round of the Iran nuclear talks will be concluded by a one or two-page joint statement, probably read by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

However, the source said that the sides have already solved most of the differences during the 18 months since the talks was resumed in 2013, and the remaining hurdles don't mean the fall-back of the negotiation.

"The sides are closer than ever, and tomorrow will always be a new day," the source said, "the real deadline is the end of June, the negotiators still have time."

As foreign ministers from all the P5+1 countries, namely the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany and the EU top envoy all gathering in Lansanne, there were signs that a possible framework agreement might be within reach. However, a diplomat source told Xinhua on Monday that there are still many uncertainties in declaring any achievements.

On Nov. 24, 2013, the world major powers and Iran reached a first-step agreement on Iran's nuclear program, which demanded Iran suspend some sensitive nuclear activities in exchange of limited sanction relief to buy time for the diplomatic effort to resolve the issue.

Since then, the negotiators have twice missed self-imposed deadlines for a final and comprehensive accord, respectively in June and November last year, and they then set March 31 of 2015 as a new deadline for a political framework agreement and June 30 for the final deal, so as to pave the way for the final resolution of the long disputed Iran nuclear issue. Endit