Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said he hoped Tehran and world powers would reach a final nuclear deal "within a reasonable period of time" but this would be hard if the other side stuck to what he called excessive demands.
Iran, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China reached a tentative framework for a nuclear pact on April 2 but several issues remain unresolved. They have a self-imposed June 30 deadline to arrive at a comprehensive agreement.
"If the other side respects what has been agreed in Lausanne and tries to draft, based on mutual respect, a comprehensive agreement with Iran that is sustainable..., then we can meet any deadline," Mr Zarif said after meeting his Greek counterpart.
"If people insist on excessive demands, on renegotiation, then it will be difficult to envisage an agreement even without a deadline," he said in Athens.
France warned on Wednesday it was ready to block a final breakthrough deal unless Tehran provided UN nuclear inspectors access to all installations, including military bases.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week ruled out international inspection of Iran's military sites or access to nuclear scientists under any agreement. Iran's military commanders echoed his remarks.
Iranian state television reported on Wednesday the June 30 deadline might be extended. But the US said it was not considering an extension despite comments from France and Iran indicating there was wiggle room.
Mr Zarif is expected to meet his US counterpart John Kerry in Geneva on Saturday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article