World powers, Iran start talks on lasting nuclear settlement

Six world powers and Iran began talks in Vienna on Tuesday in pursuit of a final settlement on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme in the coming months despite warnings from both sides that a deal may prove impossible.
   
Expected to last two or three days, the meeting is the first since the powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - struck an interim accord with Iran in November under which Iran scaled back its most sensitive nuclear work in return for some sanctions relief.
   
In a final deal, Western governments want to define the permissible scope of an Iranian nuclear programme and resolve their concerns that Tehran is seeking the capability to build an atomic bomb. Iran, which denies having any such goal, wants the complete removal of painful economic sanctions imposed by Washington, European governments and the United Nations.

This comes after President Hassan Rouhani said sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program will hurt the West as well as the Islamic Republic.
 
Rouhani was speaking to a meeting of parliamentarians from across the Muslim world on Tuesday, shortly before Tehran was scheduled to meet in world powers in Vienna for a final deal that could see Iran give up some nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.
 
"Fire, war-mongering and the frustration of human beings are result of the sanctions," Rouhani said. He said the "fire" would also damage the countries that impose them.

The United States said on Monday that talks between Iran and six world powers on a long-term deal for Tehran to limit its nuclear programme and see international sanctions lifted will be long and complicated with no guarantee of success.

The remarks came from a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity on the eve of the first round of high-level negotiations since an interim deal struck on Nov. 24 under which Tehran curbed some nuclear activities for limited sanctions relief.

"These next days this week are the beginning of what will be a complicated, difficult and lengthy process," the administration official told reporters in the Austrian capital.