Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:0
Iran: Success of N. Talks Blocked by Republicans' Victory in Elections
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930901001257

TEHRAN (FNA - Fars news agency)- Iran and the US were on the verge of a
nuclear deal in the recent talks in Masqat, Oman, but Zionists' pressures
and Republicans' control over the Senate after their win in the midterm
election blocked the path of progress, a high-ranking Iranian commander
said.

"What the Americans said in Masqat were the Israelis' words," Chief of Staff
of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi told reporters
in Tehran on Saturday.

"All the yearlong negotiation with all the endeavors and time and money put
into these negotiations was troubled with a political event which happened
in the US," he added.

Firouzabadi said he doubted if the Americans could handle the situation and
take a correct decision in their talks with Iran, and added, "I think that
the US officials are indebted to the money (campaign donations) that
Zionists spend to bring them to power and cannot, thus, realize what the
Islamic Republic of Iran says."

The Republicans gained the majority of the US Senate as Iran and the six
major world powers had held 8 rounds of nuclear negotiations after inking an
interim agreement in Geneva on November 24, 2013, and had less than three
weeks time to strike a final deal before the November 24 deadline.

The 9th round of talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia,
China, Britain and France plus Germany) included two days of trilateral
talks among Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US Secretary of
State John Kerry and EU's Chief negotiator Catherine Ashton as well as an
hour-long multilateral meeting between the Iranian and G5+1 top negotiators
in the Omani capital on November 11 without any tangible results.

In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until
November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key
issues.

The 10th and last round of negotiations between Iran and six world powers is
now underway in Vienna as the seven nations have only two more days to work
on a final deal.