The parties involved in the Iran nuclear talks are planning to go past the June 30th deadline previously set for reaching a final agreement, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday.
“We’ve said that these talks could go beyond June 30th for a few days if we need some additional time to conclude a strong comprehensive agreement,” the official told CNN.
“Given the date and fact that we have more work still to do, the parties are planning to remain in Vienna past June 30th to keep negotiating. We are still very focused on concluding a comprehensive agreement in this negotiating round, though, and no one is talking about a long-term extension,” the official said.
Sources have told CNN over the past couple of days that going past June 30th was very likely and have been downplaying expectations of reaching a final agreement by Tuesday.
Separately Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday that he would be returning to Iran for a very short visit, a senior State Department official told the pool traveling with Kerry.
The official would not say how close the parties were to an agreement, but said, “We have made some progress.”
“To be very clear, we are still focused on a comprehensive agreement in this negotiating round, no one is talking about some kind of long-term extension,” the official traveling with Kerry said. “As we’ve talked about if we need a few extra days given the fact that there is still more work to do. If people need to go back to their capitols and have conversations with their leadership that is a good thing as part of these talks, that has been part of it all along.”