Deadline hangs over Iran talks as diplomats change plans

Following a two hour meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart on Friday night, the White House said "serious gaps" still need to be overcome in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Obviously, the deadline is Monday, and our folks there are working furiously to meet it... Serious gaps do remain," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Iranian counterpart on Friday for over two hours after earlier announcing he was pulling back from talks about Iran's nuclear program — a shift that suggested some hope of salvaging the protracted negotiations.

Iran’s official news agency IRNA said Kerry had made new proposals to bridge the differences blocking a deal.

Kerry spokesperson Jen Psaki said Kerry would remain in Vienna overnight, and that it has not yet been determined when he would depart.

Officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany seek to reduce the potency of Iran's nuclear program and slow its technical ability to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies seeking such arms, but is negotiating in pursuit of relief from international sanctions.

An earlier U.S. statement said Kerry was heading for Paris from Vienna. But he was still in the Austrian capital as the day turned into evening, and a new U.S. statement said he was meeting again with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and former European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Zarif apparently also delayed plans to leave for consultations in Tehran. IRNA reports that he was departing Friday were replaced with an article quoting an unidentified Iranian nuclear negotiator as saying Zarif was staying "and the talks will continue." 

However, officials close to the talks say the two sides are unlikely to secure a definitive accord and may need to extend the deadline.

Before Zarif changed his travel plans, a source close to the talks told Reuters the top Iranian diplomat would discuss a proposal he received from the six nations that outlines the main principles of a possible agreement.

Western diplomats earlier this week said that a U.S.-drafted proposal shown to Iran at talks in Oman earlier this month called for Tehran to reduce its number of uranium enrichment centrifuges to 4,500, well below its current 19,000 centrifuges – 10,000 of which are operational.

Iranian officials have said they refuse to reduce the volume of uranium they are capable of enriching, which Western officials say is unacceptable. That is one major sticking point in the talks. Another is the timetable for lifting sanctions. Iran wants them terminated swiftly, not suspended and later terminated as Western powers are calling for.

Wire services