MUNICH — Iran's foreign minister said Sunday that extending a nuclear-talks deadline is not in anyone's interest, but failing to reach a deal with world powers wouldn't be "the end of the world." The U.S. and its allies have been working to strike a historic deal with Iran over its nuclear program and extended a self-imposed deadline to July after negotiators failed to clinch an agreement in November.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other officials on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference early Sunday, saying after that he did not find the first extension "either necessary or useful," and does "not believe that another extension is in the interest of anybody."
Still, he said "we're reaching to the point that it is quite possible to make an agreement," and stressed that all of his energy and that of his colleagues is "focused on reaching an agreement as early as possible."
"I don't think that if we don't have an agreement, it would be the end of the world," Zarif added. "We tried, we failed, fine. We'll think of other procedures."
Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday he would “go along with” a nuclear agreement as long as it was in the best interest of the country. “No deal is better than a bad deal,” he added, in remarks to air force personnel which were posted on his official website.
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