‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken
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‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

‘Decisive’ Moment Nears on Iran Nuclear Talks, Says Blinken

The United States and its European allies said on Thursday that it was now just a matter of weeks to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States on reviving the nuclear deal resumed almost two months ago.

Western diplomats have previously indicated they were hoping to have a breakthrough over the next few weeks, but sharp differences remain with the toughest issues still unresolved.

Iran has rejected any deadline imposed by Western powers.

Diplomats and analysts say the longer Iran remains outside the deal, the more nuclear expertise it will gain, shortening the time it might need to race to build a bomb if it chose to, thereby undermining the accord's original purpose.

"We are indeed at a decisive moment," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference after meeting French, German and British ministers in Berlin.

"There is real urgency and it's really now a matter of weeks, where we determine whether or not we can return to mutual compliance with the agreement."

The eighth round of talks, the first under Iran's new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, resumed on Dec. 27 after adding some new Iranian demands to a working text.

Western states have repeatedly said that time was running out without setting a deadline for the end of talks.

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock again said the window of opportunity was closing.

"The negotiations have now entered a decisive phase. We need to make very, very urgent progress here, otherwise we will not be able to reach an agreement together that will bring sufficient added value to the central issue of non-proliferation," she said.



Russian Missile Strikes Ukrainian President's Home City

In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, a Russian Army Buk-2M self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system fires at air targets in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, a Russian Army Buk-2M self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system fires at air targets in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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Russian Missile Strikes Ukrainian President's Home City

In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, a Russian Army Buk-2M self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system fires at air targets in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, a Russian Army Buk-2M self-propelled, medium-range surface-to-air missile system fires at air targets in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

A Russian missile slammed into Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home city on Wednesday, local authorities said, just as Kryvyi Rih was observing an official day of mourning for an attack the previous day that killed four civilians at a hotel.

The latest attack on the city struck civilian infrastructure, wounding eight people, local administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said on social media.

Tuesday's attack, which also wounded five people, was part of a barrage of dozens of missiles and drones across Ukraine that Russia launched for a second consecutive day, The AP reported.

“When Kryvyi Rih is in mourning, the enemy attacks again. And it once again aims at civilians,” regional head Serhii Lysak said Wednesday.

Russia stepped up its bombing of Ukraine on Monday, firing more than 100 missiles and a similar number of drones in its biggest onslaught in weeks.

The intensified bombing campaign coincided with what could prove to be a decisive period of the war, which Russia launched on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian forces have been driving deeper into Ukraine’s partly occupied eastern Donetsk region, whose total capture is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia's army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.

At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is in part an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.

At the hotel in Kryvyi Rih, rescuers on Wednesday found a final body under the rubble. The rescue operation then ended.

Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed its anti-aircraft defenses destroyed a Russian Su-25 jet in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine also kept up its long-range drone attacks on Russia’s rear logistical areas.

Ukraine’s military intelligence claimed responsibility for an attack on an oil depot in Russia’s Rostov region, and in the first known Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kirov region, Kirov governor Alexander Sokolov said three Ukrainian drones fell near an oil depot there. The region is about 950 kilometers (roughly 600 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border.