Iran has finally admitted it will not make a deal with world powers over its nuclear development program by the November 24 deadline.
Therefore, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested Sunday that the Islamic Republic consider an extension of its nuclear talks with world powers, according to Associated Press.
Negotiations in Vienna continued with the six world powers as they tried to convince Iran to restrain its uranium enrichment in exchange for reducing international sanctions.
Kerry began separate talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hoping to salvage the process and convince Tehran to extend talks beyond midnight November 24.
But the only certainty on Sunday was the fact that no deal was possible by the deadline.
“Considering the short time left until the deadline and number of issues that needed to be discussed and resolved, it is impossible to reach a final and comprehensive deal by November 24,” a member of Iran’s negotiating team told the Islamic Republic’s semi-official ISNA news agency.
Iran insists it is not intent on creating a nuclear weapon, but its drive to enrich uranium at high military grade levels and its refusal to reduce or slow down its program belies the claim.
Israel’s prime minister, meanwhile, told the ABC network’s “This Week” program that any deal “that would allow Iran to remain with thousands of [uranium enrichment] centrifuges which it could use to enrich uranium, which you need for a nuclear bomb, in a short period of time,” would be a “bad deal.”
Netanyahu warned viewers that it would be a fatal mistake to reduce or dissolve international sanctions unless Iran’s ability to create an atomic weapon is likewise dismantled.
“If, for any reason the United States and the other powers agree to leave Iran with that capacity to break out, I think that would be a historic mistake,” Netanyahu said.
There is no reason, he said, to allow Iran to keep the centrifuges spinning so it can produce a nuclear bomb. Nor is there any reason to allow Iran to produce intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying a nuclear payload and threatening the entire world.
“Everyone, the entire world, nearly all the regimes in the Middle East” except that of Syria, said Netanyahu, “understand this is a great danger.”
Iranian state-run media, meanwhile, reported that the Iranian Navy had increased its surveillance of foreign military maneuvers. Israel is allegedly reconsidering its use of force against Iran if a “bad deal” – one that endangers the Jewish State, the Middle East, and the rest of the planet – is reached between Iran and world powers this week.