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Diplomats seeking to limit Iran's nuclear program have long said they wouldn't keep bargaining if officials in Tehran proved unwilling to budge. But after a year of frazzling negotiations and two missed deadlines, the diplomats have done just that.

Six world powers and Iran failed to meet the latest cutoff date, Nov. 24, for a comprehensive deal and instead extended negotiations for seven months. Diplomats who had gathered in Vienna said that new ideas were raised in the final hours of talks that merited study and that they justified setting yet another deadline.

"We would be fools to walk away," Secretary of State John F. Kerry told reporters.

Although deep divisions remain on core issues, diplomats fear a complete breakdown in talks would raise risks for all sides: advances in Iran's nuclear program, a greater danger of war, or new U.S. and European sanctions that could further batter the Iranian economy.

World powers have been trying since 2003 to negotiate curbs on Iran's uranium enrichment program. Iran insists the program is for energy and other civilian purposes, but Western governments believe that Tehran is seeking bomb-making capability and thus poses a threat to world security.

The deal being sought would involve a basic trade-off: The world powers would ease U.S., European and United Nations economic sanctions on Iran if it agreed to restrictions aimed at preventing it from building a nuclear bomb.

Iran and the six powers the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China have been negotiating under the terms of an interim agreement worked out in November 2013. The so-called joint plan of action gave Iran limited relief from sanctions in exchange for a halt to some of its most worrisome nuclear activities.

Over the course of the year, negotiators made headway in several areas.

Iran agreed to stop adding centrifuges, the machines that can enrich uranium to convert it to bomb fuel. It also agreed to stop enriching uranium to a 20% purity, which is close to the grade at which it can be used for bomb fuel.

Iranian officials also promised to redesign a partially built heavy-water research reactor at Arak to reduce its output of plutonium, another potential bomb fuel. They agreed to more intrusive monitoring of nuclear facilities by U.N. inspectors and said they would convert a bomb-resistant underground enrichment facility at Fordow into a research site.

Continued here:
Iran nuclear talks: What's at stake and what's happened so far