Iranian and US officials in Vienna have cautioned that there is still hard work to be done before a final deal can be reached.

Arriving in Vienna for the fourth round of nuclear talks aimed at drafting the text of an accord ahead of a July 20 deadline, Iran’s foreign minister said “a lot of effort” was still needed.

“If there are differences of opinion, which definitely exist, we will spend time to resolve them,” Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian media after touching down in the Austrian capital.

Iran, P5+1 members

A senior US official said that the talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany would be “very, very difficult’’.

“There are a range of complicated issues to address and we do not know if Iran will be able to make the tough decisions they must to assure the world that they will not obtain a nuclear weapon and that their programme is for entirely peaceful purposes,” the official said.

She added that optimism raised in some quarters that a deal was within reach has “gotten way out of control’’.

Freeze on nuclear programme

The six powers and Iran want to transform an interim deal struck in Geneva in November into a permanent one by the time a six-month freeze of certain nuclear work by Iran ends on July 20.

In a nutshell, the powers want Iran to reduce the scope of its nuclear programme to make it practically impossible for Iran to make a nuclear weapon undetected.

In return the Islamic republic, which denies wanting the bomb and says its aims are purely peaceful, wants all UN and Western sanctions lifted.

If the negotiators can manage to get a deal, this could finally resolve a standoff that has been simmering and threatening to escalate into conflict for the past decade.

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