Iran Rejects Latest US ‘Deadline’

Sanctions Talks Adjourned Until Late January

by Jason Ditz, December 23, 2009

Iran’s Foreign Ministry today rejected the latest US deadline which demands that Iran accept its nuclear demands by the end of December or face “crippling sanctions.”

The US responded by assuring that the deadline was “very real” and that Iran had better meet it or face “implications and consequences for their failure to take advantage of this opportunity.”

But exactly when those new consequences come remains to be seen, as the P5+1 adjourned talks today until the later half of January. The US has expressed eagerness to impose everything possible on Iran, but still needs to get Chinese approval for harsher sanctions.

The US is simultaneously demanding that Iran abandon its civilian nuclear program or, failing that, agree to a third party enrichment deal. Iran has expressed openness to the third party deal, but has sought additional talks to iron out details, something the US has rejected.

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