Nuclear negotiations will likely stretch in to the weekend, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday.
“I doubt it will happen today,” Zarif told reporters in Vienna about reaching a deal. But when asked if negotiators would all be there on Monday Zarif yelled from a balcony “I hope not.”
This would be the latest extension for Iran nuclear talks, which have a Friday self-imposed deadline — and which followed missing two other previous deadlines.
The E.U. and State Department also indicated talks were expected to go past today with their extension of the current interim arrrangement, know as the Joint Plan of Action.
According to a statement on the Council of Europe website Friday, the freeze of E.U. sanctions specified in the plan will continue through Monday.
Zarif made the comments after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Vienna.
“We had a constructive meeting this morning with Secretary Kerry and Mogherini,” Zarif told reporters, saying “We are making progress.”
For his part, when asked about whether they’ll reach their existing Friday deadline, Kerry told reporters “We’re working hard. We’re pushing.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Friday that all sanction from Iran need to be lifted and said he hopes the talks reach a resolution soon.
“We know what’s going on there. We’re in touch with our partners in Vienna. I hope the document will be signed soon,” Putin said at a press conference Friday in Ufa, Russia.
Putin added, “We’re coming from the fact that all sanctions need to be lifted from Iran. Sanctions are not the way to solve problems. In my view, the compromise will be found soon.”