Khamenei warning as Iran nuclear talks resume

World powers and Iran resumed talks late Wednesday aimed at reaching a landmark nuclear deal as Tehran’s supreme leader vowed not to retreat “one step” from Iran’s rights.

The opening plenary session in Geneva lasted less than 10 minutes and was described by diplomats as an “introductory” meeting before delegates headed into bilateral talks.

More detailed negotiations are expected on Thursday.

Despite cautious optimism that a deal could be within reach, Secretary of State John Kerry vowed the US would not back an agreement that simply let Iran “buy time”.

“We will not allow this agreement, should it be reached… to buy time or to allow for the acceptance of an agreement that does not properly address our core, fundamental concerns,” he said in Washington.

Comments earlier Wednesday by Iran’s supreme leader indicated that this week’s round of talks — the third since Hassan Rouhani’s election as president in June raised hopes of a deal — may be fraught.

In an anti-Israel diatribe that France said would “complicate” the Geneva negotiations, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “I insist on not retreating one step from the rights of the Iranian nation.”

The United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the P5+1, want Iran to suspend certain parts of its nuclear programme for a period of several months in a “first phase”, in return for easing some sanctions.

A longer-term agreement would then be hammered out that would reduce Iran’s programme to a size acceptable to the international community.

Iran’s lead negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that “the lost confidence must be regained”, in reference to the last Geneva talks 10 days ago when French objections apparently put off a long-hoped for breakthrough.

But Israel, widely assumed to have a formidable nuclear arsenal itself, has expressed alarm at the mooted deal, as have hardliners in Washington arguing for more sanctions.

Instead of stopping all uranium enrichment, the powers appear to be satisfied with the suspension of enrichment to medium levels and for stockpiles of material enriched to this level to be dealt with, as well as more IAEA inspections and a halt to work at the key Arak reactor.

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday where he sought to harden Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stance, this leaves intact Iran’s ability to make a bomb.

Putin said after the talks that he hoped for a “mutually acceptable” solution while the Israeli leader called for a “real solution” to the crisis.

Israel has refused to rule out bombing Iran, as it was assumed to have done with an Iraqi reactor in 1981 and a Syrian site in 2007.

Washington has sought to ease Israel’s fears, insisting any deal would ensure Iran does not build atomic weapons.

“The United States and Israel share a common objective, and that is to make sure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon. How we get there, we may have some tactical differences, but our objective is identical,” a senior US administration official told reporters in Geneva.

Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful. Uranium enrichment is the main worry for the international community since enriched uranium has civilian uses but also be used to build a bomb.

‘Historic opportunity’

It remains to be seen whether Iran, seeking an easing of UN, US and EU sanctions that have more than halved the country’s lifeblood oil exports, will accept the minor relief the P5+1 are offering.

On the table is “limited, temporary, targeted and reversible” relief that a senior US official said “will not come anywhere near helping Iran escape the hole that we’ve put them in”.

If Rouhani, seen as a relative moderate, fails to secure quick and substantial relief from the sanctions, the Iranian president risks losing the support of arch-conservatives and, most importantly, that of the supreme leader, experts say.

Nevertheless Iran’s foreign minister was upbeat about the prospects of reaching a deal this time in Geneva.

“I think there is every possibility for success,” Mohammad Jarad Zarif said on a stopover in Rome on Tuesday.

He wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday that he would hold “serious and detailed” negotiations with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Thursday. Ashton represents the six major powers in the nuclear talks.

US President Barack Obama, fresh from seeking to dissuade lawmakers from imposing new sanctions on Iran, was more cautious on Tuesday: “I don’t know if we will be able to close a deal this week or next week.”

Calling the talks a “historic opportunity”, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in Turkey that the differences were “narrow and … can be bridged through political will and commitment”.