Iran deal ‘done,’ Israeli report says

A nuclear deal has been reached between the world powers and Iran after a series of major American concessions, Israel’s Channel 2 television reported Friday night.

The Middle East affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 2 television, Ehud Yaari, said: “Deal is done. It is done and will be signed “early next week.”

According to Yaari, the deal was reached because the Americans “have made a series of concessions over the past two to three weeks in almost every key aspect that was being debated.”

One major concession, Yaari said, is the issue of inspections of Iranian nuclear sites,. According to him, the US negotiators have given in to an Iranian demand that inspections are “managed” — in other words, there will be no surprise visits, only those that are pre-arranged and approved by the Iranians.

72 hours to clinch a nuclear deal

Iran and the world’s leading powers gave themselves until Monday to reach a nuclear agreement, their third extension in two weeks, The guardian reported.

Both sides say there has been progress in two weeks of talks, but on Friday night British foreign secretary Philip Hammond called it “painfully slow” and he and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, left Vienna saying they would return on Saturday.

Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said negotiators would probably spend the weekend in Vienna. He sought to blame the west for the impasse.

“Now, they have excessive demands,” he said of the major powers’ negotiating position.

Zarif has been holding intense meetings for two weeks with US secretary of state John Kerry to try to hammer out a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in return for withdrawing economic sanctions.

An agreement would be the biggest step towards rapprochement between Iran and the West since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The White House said on Friday the US and its negotiating partners “have never been closer” to agreement with Iran but that the US delegation would not wait indefinitely.

Iran nuclear talks will reach compromise ‘soon’, Russia says

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he believed global powers and Iran will “soon” reach a compromise in talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme, AFP reported.

“A compromise should be found,” Putin said after hosting a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Urals city of Ufa, where he met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday.

“In my opinion, it will be found soon,” he said.

“Not only Iran and talks participants but all of the countries in the region including Arab countries and Israel are interested in this,” Putin said.

“We proceed from the fact that all sanctions against Iran should be lifted,” he said, stressing that this should happen “as soon as possible.”

“We believe this is not the way to solve international problems,” he said.