White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that he did not want to set a “definitive” ending date for talks with Iran and that the White House is unlikely to “arbitrarily end the talks that are productive,” while maintaining the negotiations weren’t “open-ended” during Wednesday’s Press Briefing.
“We do not envision a scenario where we would abruptly and arbitrarily end the talks that are productive. But at the same time, [these] conversations are not open-ended” Earnest said.
He continued, “we have been serious about the way that we believe it is most effective for us to structure these negotiations. And that is to structure these negotiations in a way that a framework agreement, essentially a political agreement could be reached, by the end of March is what we said, we’re at April 1st now. Because we want to preserve ample time, essentially two or three months, for the technical experts to then sit at the table and have a conversation about how the numbers are going to work inside this broader framework agreement. And we believe it’s important to leave ample time for those conversations.”
He concluded, “that’s why I have been to unwilling to set a definitive, though arbitrary date, but at the same time been — tried to be clear about the fact that we’re not operating in an open-ended environment here.”
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