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The alternatives to an international accord preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons are quite terrible, the chief U.S. negotiator in talks with Iran said.

Even so, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said today, the U.S. wont accept a bad deal or even a half-bad deal to avoid failure.

Sherman said in Washington that she cant predict the outcome of the negotiations as they head toward a Nov. 24 deadline with six nations and Iran still jockeying over constraints on the Islamic Republics nuclear activities and the terms for lifting economic sanctions.

U.S. lawmakers on key committees are preparing legislation to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran if theres no deal by that date, and Irans interim commitment to curtail uranium-enrichment would expire with the end of the negotiations. Barring an agreement to extend the talks for a second time, the stage would be set for events that could lead to military attacks on Irans nuclear facilities by the U.S. or Israel.

Theres no question that, if everything goes away, escalation will be the name of the game on all sides, and none of that is good, Sherman said at a conference on Iran held in Washington by Syracuse Universitys Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Its why I say the stakes are high.

Sherman said the world powers -- China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. -- have offered negotiating measures that would ensure that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon, that all the pathways to fissile material for a nuclear weapon are shut down in a verifiable manner.

Were striving toward that objective because the alternatives are quite terrible, she said.

The deal would provide for the the U.S. and other nations to suspend and then lift nuclear-related sanctions on the Islamic Republic, she said.

Iran has been seeking a complete lifting of sanctions, which would be difficult to reimpose if Iran were caught cheating on the deal.

The interim accord during the talks has constrained Irans nuclear activities and opened its facilities to increased international monitoring in return for limited sanctions relief, Sherman said.

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Escalation Likely If Iran Talks Fail, U.S. Official Says