Iran nuke talks to resume as US lawmakers up pressure

ANKARA 

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and major global powers will resume Thursday, as U.S. lawmakers intensify pressure on President Barack Obama. 

The talks will continue in Lausanne, Switzerland, and they will run until Sunday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to be joined by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The nuclear talks geared up recently due to concerns that failure to produce a framework deal before March 31 may jeopardize any positive outcome from a final agreement, which has a July 1 deadline.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said last Saturday in London that the P5+1 countries -- five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- will not do a "bad" deal, and will aim at securing a successful outcome.

The P5+1 countries claim Iran is developing nuclear weapons and want its program curbed in return for the lifting of sanctions.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

The deal sought by the six-member group would have Iran accept limits on its uranium enrichment capacity and would allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections without interference.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said Monday in Washington D.C. that the agency cannot conclude that Iran's program is for peaceful purposes.

Saying that only limited progress has been made so far, Amano emphasized that Iran needs to be as transparent as possible.

- Pressure from U.S. lawmakers

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the U.S. intensified pressure on President Barack Obama about the nuclear talks.

On Monday, 367 members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote a letter to the U.S. president, saying that any agreement with Iran over its nuclear program has to be approved by Congress.

"Should an agreement with Iran be reached, permanent sanctions relief from congressionally-mandated sanctions would require new legislation," said the open letter that was released Monday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"In reviewing such an agreement, Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief," the letter added.

This is the second letter by the U.S. lawmakers after 47 U.S. Senators signed an open letter March 9, saying that any nuclear deal between Obama and Tehran could be reversed once the U.S. president leaves office.