Reporters mocked the State Department’s Iran talking points on Tuesday, as negotiations between the Islamic republic and the P5+1 stretched into a second week.
State Department Spokesperson John Kirby was asked multiple times during Tuesday’s press briefing about the consequences of passing a July 7 deadline set down in the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA), an agreement which temporarily rescinds economic sanctions on Iran to keep its negotiators at the table.
Kirby would not refer to the July 7 marker as a "deadline," instead calling it an "extension of the JPOA parameters."
Still, some reporters insisted on using the d-word.
Began one reporter, "I don’t understand why nobody just says Look, you have to give us time to negotiate this. Why do these self-imposed deadlines—?"
"Self-imposed extensions," CNN’s Elise Labott corrected.
"Thank you, Elise," Kirby said. He jokingly offered Labott his briefing book. "That’s good. Let me just give you the talking points. You’re using them just as well as me."
"Yeah, but I’m rolling my eyes when I say that," Labott shot back.
State Department officials clarified that JPOA sanctions relief for Iran would remain in effect through July 10, Al Jazeera reported:
Talks between Iran and Western powers to find a nuclear deal will continue until July 10, the US State Department has announced.
"To allow for the additional time to negotiate, we are taking the necessary technical steps for the measures of the Joint Point of Action to remain in place through July 10," US State Deparment spokesman Marie Harf said on Tuesday.
Harf said "substantial progress in every area" had been made, but negotiators need time to work on the "highly technical and high stakes" details of the agreement.
"We're frankly more concerned about the quality of the deal than we are about the clock," she said.
The US statement comes as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also said that negotiators "are continuing the talks for the next couple of days" beyond the July 7 deadline.
"This does not mean we are extending our deadline. I told you one week ago more or less, we are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalise the agreement," she said.