Iran, powers wrangle over illusive nuke deal

In a game of high-stakes diplomatic brinkmanship, global powers were readying yesterday for a late-night push to reach a deal curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions and ending a 13-year standoff.

With all bets off after ministers missed yet another deadline to seal the accord, US Secretary of State John Kerry was huddling with his team in a rainy Vienna to pore over documents seeking to find a way forward.

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Iran and six world powers have now effectively given themselves until Friday to reach a deal by extending the terms of a November 2013 interim accord, after missing two target dates in this round of talks now in their 12th day.

But as they stare each down, both Iran and the United States have now insisted there is no target date, and they plan to keep talking in Vienna until a deal emerges or not.

"It's doable by tomorrow night (Thursday) if talks advance this evening," said a Western diplomatic source.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his British counterpart Philip Hammond were due back in the Austrian capital later yesterday, to pow-wow once more with Kerry and Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Observers say it is hard to believe that after almost two years of intense and tough negotiations the talks could collapse.

All sides have insisted they are not planning a formal months-long extension of the talks, and one clear success has been the 2013 interim deal under which Tehran has frozen parts of its nuclear programme in return for minor sanctions relief.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest praised the interim accord on Tuesday, saying it "essentially opened the door to these broader talks. And what it did was it froze Iran's nuclear program in place. It rolled it back in some key aspects."

In another twist to the talks, if Kerry fails to hand over a deal by the end of Thursday, US lawmakers will get 60 days instead of 30 to review it which may delay its implementation.

But Earnest brushed aside the congressional deadline, recalling lawmakers would be in recess for most of August anyway, and adding: "We welcome additional scrutiny of the deal."