(GNN) - When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Wednesday that a framework nuclear deal had been reached between Iran and major world powers, the French delegation to the talks thought it was an April Fool's Day joke.
In the end, a deal was reached a day later. But after eight days of talking, with a Tuesday midnight deadline already history, it had gone to the wire and beyond.
Before the delegations paused to rest briefly as the sun came up over Lake Geneva on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met repeatedly during the night with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed Zarif, Laurent Fabius of France and Germany's Frank Walter Steinmeier.
Pressure from outside had been intense. The White House said Washington was prepared to walk away if necessary, while the Iranian delegation had to constantly consult with Tehran.
In an indication of how fraught the discussions had become, Fabius left the talks on Tuesday in the middle of the night, ostensibly to attend a cabinet meeting. But diplomats said the negotiations had become too complicated and it was "not for him to haggle over centrifuges".
The talks were held in Lausanne's lakeside Beau Rivage Palace hotel, where a cocktail can cost more than $70. Coco Chanel's dog is buried in the grounds and at times it looked as if hopes of a nuclear deal might be interred there too.
However fragile it might prove, the framework deal was eventually announced. The process that preceded it was long and hard and it is not over yet, with June 30 set for a final deal and much horsetrading expected before then.
Senior Iranian officials began thinking about the need to reopen negotiations with Washington in late 2012 after they began to see the crippling impact of Western sanctions imposed because of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iranian officials close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had grown tired of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's confrontational approach to Israel and the West, which had galvanized opposition to Iran.
A few months before Iran's June 2013 presidential election, in a secret meeting between Khamenei and a small group of top officials, the issue of who should succeed Ahmadinejad was discussed. They all agreed on Rouhani.
"Rouhani's mandate was to improve the economy, hit by the sanctions and Ahmadinejad's economic mismanagement," an Iranian official told Reuters.
AMERICAN OFFICIALS
After Rouhani was elected, Foreign Minister Zarif, who knew a number of American officials including Secretary of State John Kerry, approached them seeking to pave the way toward ending the nuclear standoff, the official said.
Khamenei was suspicious of the Americans and not optimistic about talking with them. But in the interests of the economy, he backed negotiations.
"Since the talks started, there have been ups and downs, good moments and bad moments. But generally, despite fiery public speeches, top Iranian officials, particularly the leader, backed the talks and the team," the Iranian official said.
Immediately after winning a vote of confidence in parliament, Rouhani met Kerry in September 2013, followed by the Iranian president's historic phone call with Barack Obama - the first such conversation between Iranian and U.S. presidents since ties were severed three decades ago.
After secret meetings between Iranian and U.S. officials, sometimes involving Omani intermediaries, the two sides agreed in September 2013 to relaunch the talks process that began in 2006 but stalled when it became clear that Ahmadinejad could not deliver a deal that Iran's hard-liners could accept.
Ahmadinejad's diatribes against the West had persuaded the European Union to join Washington in imposing sanctions on Iran, and the leadership in Tehran eventually opted for negotiations.
"It was clear when we began exploring talks with Iran that they were on their knees because of the sanctions," a U.S. official said. "It was time to talk."
In a year and a half of talks in Geneva, Vienna, Lausanne, New York and elsewhere, U.S.-Iranian relations underwent a subtle shift.
Meetings between senior U.S. and Iranian officials use to be big news. But now they meet so regularly that it is barely newsworthy, which diplomats say is proof of how much things have changed since Rouhani took office. U.S. and Iranian officials regularly chat outside the negotiating rooms at hotels.
But despite the increased cordiality between Iranian and U.S. officials, relations between the two countries are still not back to normal.
Zarif was summoned before parliament in January after images of him and Kerry strolling together along Lake Geneva provoked an outcry among hard-liners.
After that, Kerry was wary of allowing photographer snap pictures of him and Zarif during their strolls.
WHEN THE TROUBLES BEGAN
Although Rouhani and Zarif always wanted a deal, it was never clear that the leadership in Tehran, including Khamenei, shared their views.
The first sign that things were going wrong came last July, when Khamenei blindsided Zarif by announcing that Iran needed huge increases in nuclear centrifuge numbers.
There had earlier been indications that the Iranian delegation wanted to compromise to make a deal.
But after the leader publicly set clear red lines for his negotiators the possibility of a compromise vanished and a four-month extension was agreed to carry the negotiations to Nov. 24, which Western officials hoped would be enough time for Rouhani and Zarif to persuade hardliners in Tehran that making an agreement was their ticket to gradually ending sanctions.
But months of meetings between Iranian and American negotiators, including former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, who began secret talks with Iran in 2013 to lay the groundwork for the current negotiations, and Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who has led the U.S. delegations in Geneva and Vienna, failed find a compromise.
They also failed to break the deadlock in November, agreeing another extension until June 30, with the understanding that the parties should reach a political framework agreement by the end of March this year.
Western officials said the Obama administration and the Rouhani government both faced uphill battles to make their case to hardliners.
For Obama, there is perhaps an awareness that the only major "deliverable" he can achieve in his final two years in office is a deal with Iran.
And in Iran, many believe Kerry wants to help Obama secure his legacy. They also point to Kerry's Iranian-American son-in-law as proof that, as one Iranian woman put it, he is "on our side".
(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Before the delegations paused to rest briefly as the sun came up over Lake Geneva on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met repeatedly during the night with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed Zarif, Laurent Fabius of France and Germany's Frank Walter Steinmeier.
Pressure from outside had been intense. The White House said Washington was prepared to walk away if necessary, while the Iranian delegation had to constantly consult with Tehran.
In an indication of how fraught the discussions had become, Fabius left the talks on Tuesday in the middle of the night, ostensibly to attend a cabinet meeting. But diplomats said the negotiations had become too complicated and it was "not for him to haggle over centrifuges".
The talks were held in Lausanne's lakeside Beau Rivage Palace hotel, where a cocktail can cost more than $70. Coco Chanel's dog is buried in the grounds and at times it looked as if hopes of a nuclear deal might be interred there too.
However fragile it might prove, the framework deal was eventually announced. The process that preceded it was long and hard and it is not over yet, with June 30 set for a final deal and much horsetrading expected before then.
Senior Iranian officials began thinking about the need to reopen negotiations with Washington in late 2012 after they began to see the crippling impact of Western sanctions imposed because of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iranian officials close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had grown tired of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's confrontational approach to Israel and the West, which had galvanized opposition to Iran.
A few months before Iran's June 2013 presidential election, in a secret meeting between Khamenei and a small group of top officials, the issue of who should succeed Ahmadinejad was discussed. They all agreed on Rouhani.
"Rouhani's mandate was to improve the economy, hit by the sanctions and Ahmadinejad's economic mismanagement," an Iranian official told Reuters.
AMERICAN OFFICIALS
After Rouhani was elected, Foreign Minister Zarif, who knew a number of American officials including Secretary of State John Kerry, approached them seeking to pave the way toward ending the nuclear standoff, the official said.
Khamenei was suspicious of the Americans and not optimistic about talking with them. But in the interests of the economy, he backed negotiations.
"Since the talks started, there have been ups and downs, good moments and bad moments. But generally, despite fiery public speeches, top Iranian officials, particularly the leader, backed the talks and the team," the Iranian official said.
Immediately after winning a vote of confidence in parliament, Rouhani met Kerry in September 2013, followed by the Iranian president's historic phone call with Barack Obama - the first such conversation between Iranian and U.S. presidents since ties were severed three decades ago.
After secret meetings between Iranian and U.S. officials, sometimes involving Omani intermediaries, the two sides agreed in September 2013 to relaunch the talks process that began in 2006 but stalled when it became clear that Ahmadinejad could not deliver a deal that Iran's hard-liners could accept.
Ahmadinejad's diatribes against the West had persuaded the European Union to join Washington in imposing sanctions on Iran, and the leadership in Tehran eventually opted for negotiations.
"It was clear when we began exploring talks with Iran that they were on their knees because of the sanctions," a U.S. official said. "It was time to talk."
In a year and a half of talks in Geneva, Vienna, Lausanne, New York and elsewhere, U.S.-Iranian relations underwent a subtle shift.
Meetings between senior U.S. and Iranian officials use to be big news. But now they meet so regularly that it is barely newsworthy, which diplomats say is proof of how much things have changed since Rouhani took office. U.S. and Iranian officials regularly chat outside the negotiating rooms at hotels.
But despite the increased cordiality between Iranian and U.S. officials, relations between the two countries are still not back to normal.
Zarif was summoned before parliament in January after images of him and Kerry strolling together along Lake Geneva provoked an outcry among hard-liners.
After that, Kerry was wary of allowing photographer snap pictures of him and Zarif during their strolls.
WHEN THE TROUBLES BEGAN
Although Rouhani and Zarif always wanted a deal, it was never clear that the leadership in Tehran, including Khamenei, shared their views.
The first sign that things were going wrong came last July, when Khamenei blindsided Zarif by announcing that Iran needed huge increases in nuclear centrifuge numbers.
There had earlier been indications that the Iranian delegation wanted to compromise to make a deal.
But after the leader publicly set clear red lines for his negotiators the possibility of a compromise vanished and a four-month extension was agreed to carry the negotiations to Nov. 24, which Western officials hoped would be enough time for Rouhani and Zarif to persuade hardliners in Tehran that making an agreement was their ticket to gradually ending sanctions.
But months of meetings between Iranian and American negotiators, including former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, who began secret talks with Iran in 2013 to lay the groundwork for the current negotiations, and Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who has led the U.S. delegations in Geneva and Vienna, failed find a compromise.
They also failed to break the deadlock in November, agreeing another extension until June 30, with the understanding that the parties should reach a political framework agreement by the end of March this year.
Western officials said the Obama administration and the Rouhani government both faced uphill battles to make their case to hardliners.
For Obama, there is perhaps an awareness that the only major "deliverable" he can achieve in his final two years in office is a deal with Iran.
And in Iran, many believe Kerry wants to help Obama secure his legacy. They also point to Kerry's Iranian-American son-in-law as proof that, as one Iranian woman put it, he is "on our side".
(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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