PARIS
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the November 24 deadline for concluding Iranian nuclear negotiations will not be extended.
"We're not talking or thinking about going beyond that date. That is a critical date -- we have no intention at this point of talking about an extension, and we're not contemplating an extension," Kerry told a press conference in Paris on Wednesday.
Asked if negotiations will become more complicated with Republicans controlling the House and the Senate, Kerry vowed that it will not change U.S. government policy.
"No, I don't believe that changes either side. I honestly don’t. I believe that the same substantive issues would be there regardless of who is in control of the United States Senate," Kerry responded.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that Iran has the right to operate a civil nuclear program, but not create a bomb.
Fabius told reporters in a joint press conference with Kerry that they had agreed that Iran "definitely has the right to produce civil nuclear energy but not an atomic bomb."
He said it should be "easy" for Iran to prove that its nuclear program was peaceful; taking into consideration that time was running out on Tehran's negotiations with world powers.
Kerry is due to meet top diplomats from Iran and the European Union in Oman over the weekend.
The trip comes ahead of a crucial round of talks over Tehran's nuclear activities in Vienna before the November 24 deadline.
Kerry and Fabius also discussed a variety of issues, topped by the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The U.S. is leading an international anti-ISIL coalition, which includes France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, among others, and has carried out numerous airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since August.
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