Disarmament: EU-Iran deal on cards?

Even as the United States and its strategic partner India, are seeking to patch up relations increasingly frayed since December 12 over alleged fake visa related bitter diplomatic dispute linking an Indian embassy official in USA, leading to expulsion Indo-US embassy officials in Washington and New Delhi, the European Union (EU) is also making strenuous efforts to strike a deal with Iran.  

USA and EU consider the Iranian nukes when they are ready for deployment would be  more dangerous than Israel’s deadly ones, acquired illegally and without reporting to the UN and IAEA.  

European Union and Iran appeared to make enough progress in resolving outstanding differences on how to implement a landmark nuclear deal in talks in Geneva soon but the United States said discussions were not yet finalized.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran Abbas Araqchi met a senior EU official in Geneva to iron out remaining practical details of the November 24 accord under which Iran agreed to curb its most sensitive nuclear work in return for some sanctions relief. "Now we are taking the solutions ... home, all of us. Hopefully tomorrow we can either confirm or not, but hopefully confirm," he said.

The European Union liaises with Iran on behalf of six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - in diplomatic efforts related to Tehran's nuclear work. The seven countries need to agree when the nuclear accord goes into effect, meaning when the European Union and the United States ease economic sanctions in return for Iranian nuclear concessions, and how they will verify that Iran is meeting its end of the bargain.

The EU-Iran agreement is designed to last six months and the six powers hope to use the time to negotiate a final, broad settlement over Iran's legitimate nuclear ambitions. Underscoring skepticism about future diplomacy, one western diplomat said progress towards implementation of the November deal was a good sign, but difficulties remained in agreeing a broad accord to settle the decade-old dispute.

The nuke talks have also run into problems over advanced centrifuge research, highlighting the huge challenges facing Iran and the six powers in negotiating the precise terms of the interim agreement. Diplomats have said the sides aim to start implementing the agreement on January 20, to allow EU foreign ministers, scheduled to meet that day, to approve the suspension of EU sanctions covered by the deal. Preparations for that to take place were under way in Brussels.

During years of on-and-off diplomacy, Iran has rejected western allegations its work has military goals, saying it needs nuclear power for energy generation and medical purposes. In a series of implementation talks between nuclear experts and sanctions specialists from the seven countries and the EU, held since November 24, several issues linked to the accord have surfaced. There appear to be disagreements over the sequence of how the sides implement the deal, and how much prior notice of Iran fulfilling its obligations should be given to western governments before they ease sanctions.

The EU spokesman Michael Mann said very good progress was made on all the pertinent issues, but added that results of the talks still had to be validated by more senior officials.

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a news briefing that the technical talks were making good progress but reports that a deal had been finalized were inaccurate. White House said there have been a few outstanding issues, but at this point, but it claims the reports that everything has been finalized are incorrect.

It seems the sides had found "solutions for every difference" but more consultations were needed before an agreement could be announced.

Unless all nuke powers agree to dismantle their own nuclear arsenal as per a time-frame, all talks about Iran’s or Korean nukes are ridiculous.

Once total disarmament is achieved no nation, big or small, can  need to  buy costly nuclear reactors for nukes.  Regimes can use the money on  people, less fortunate ones. 

Double-talks and double-standards on nuke possession go against simple ethics and can only harm the less fortunate nations seeking their own legitimate nuclear facility.  

How come, the USA and EU think Israel can  make nukes illegally  but Iran  or North Korea cannot!