John Kerry heads to Vienna for Iran nuclear talks

The US secretary of state is due to arrive in Vienna on Thursday night as international nuclear negotiations with Iran enter their final stretch, the Guardian reported.

John Kerry’s presence is likely to mark the start of a last intensive push towards achieving an agreement by the Monday night deadline, in the expectation that both sides will reveal their final concessions only in the last few days or hours.

He will arrive in Vienna from talks in Paris with his French and Saudi Arabian counterparts, intended to maintain the support of both countries – among the most hawkish on Iran – for western negotiating strategy.

All sides at the Vienna talks have agreed that the resolution of the IAEA’s inquiry into past weaponisation work will be achieved at some later date over the lifetime of a comprehensive deal, when it will be tied to the lifting of the last sanctions on the country.

Before travelling to Paris, Kerry met the Omani foreign minister, Yusuf bin Alawi, twice in London. Oman has been an important intermediary in the past between Washington and Tehran, and Alawi met President Hassan Rouhani and aides to Iran’s supreme leader on a visit to the Iranian capital last weekend.

In Paris, Kerry met the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, and his Saudi opposite number, Saud al-Faisal.