Region

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Soldiers launched searches in the occupied West Bank on Thursday for an Israeli feared abducted since disappearing after heading to a Palestinian village for tools to fix a flat tyre, Israeli spokesmen said.

The searches were the most widespread by Israeli forces in the territory since a June dragnet for three abducted Israeli settlers whose bodies were found two weeks later in the same area, near the West Bank city of Hebron.

The Israeli military said in a statement that security forces had reported a suspected abduction and troops had launched "extensive searches in the area" of the village of Beit Anun near Hebron, near where news reports said he had last been seen.

Security spokesman Micky Rosenberg said extra forces had been deployed in response to an emergency call from an Israeli who reported "a broken down vehicle and a friend had walked off looking for assistance to fix the tyre”.

The man who had sought help "has gone missing and there's an extensive search in the area for him," Rosenberg said.

"We are worried we are talking about a security related situation and possible kidnapping. But it's not clear," Rosenberg added.

Israeli media described the missing man only as 22 years old and from southern Israel. Neither the military nor police would comment on his identity.

There have been no claims by any Palestinian groups of any abductions or attacks in the area.

MUSCAT — Oman is ready to help the United Nations mediate in Yemen's war, the foreign minister of the neighbouring sultanate said on Thursday, but the combatants show no signs they are ready to hold talks on ending the week-old war.

Yusuf Bin Alawi said Oman had previously passed messages between Yemen's Houthis and their Saudi foes, but neither had sought out such contact since Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations began air strikes against the Houthis on March 26.

Although Oman could help the United Nations bring the foes to a "roundtable", he said peace efforts should be taken up at the UN Security Council, the world's top security body, and hosted somewhere outside the Middle East.

"The UN is an organisation that has been tasked to maintain peace for all the powers involved, although we will not hesitate to play a role in order to help Yemenis, to help the United Nations, to encourage both parties involved in the crisis to come to a roundtable and discuss their own future," he added.

Oman, which traditionally seeks to play a conciliator role in a turbulent region, is the only Gulf Arab country to sit out the Saudi-led bombing campaign. The Houthis regard it as neutral and hence potentially as an acceptable mediator.

"Oman has distanced itself from the war, and this is a wise decision," a member of the Houthi politburo, Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, told Reuters.

Sympathetic listener

The Saudis, a majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, want to prevent the Shiite Houthis, whom they see as Iranian proxies, from keeping power in a country they see as their backyard. In contrast, Oman, Yemen's only other neighbour, has positioned itself as a sympathetic listener to both sides.

"Oman is not part of that campaign for simple reasons — Oman is a nation of peace," Bin Alawi told Reuters.

"We cannot work on peace efforts at the same time we would be part of a military campaign. Those two things do not meet."

For now, he said, the warring parties "are still not ready [for dialogue]".

Bin Alawi said Oman "understood" the situation which had led to the Saudi-led campaign, but "... in order to lead Yemen to the future [both parties] should be free from any influence, except the influence of their own people".

Oman in recent months has sought to distance itself from a Saudi plan for Gulf Arab states to close ranks against Iran. Riyadh has backed groups opposing Iranian proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, and has tried to rally Gulf Arab states into what a former Omani diplomat has described as "a sectarian project to confront Iran".

THE HAGUE — Palestine formally joined the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday, a move the Palestinians hope could open the door to the possible prosecution of Israelis for alleged war crimes.

The accession was marked at a closed-door ceremony at ICC headquarters in The Hague, exactly 90 days after Palestine joined the court's founding Rome Statute.

The Palestinians called on Israel to also join the global court, which was set up in 2002 to try crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

Exasperated after decades of failed negotiations with Israel and no prospect of achieving statehood anytime soon, Palestinians have been waging a campaign for recognition at international bodies including the ICC.

"Palestine seeks justice, not vengeance," Foreign Minister Riad Malki said after receiving a symbolic copy of the Rome Statute at the ceremony.

"Israel should join us in becoming a member of the International Criminal Court," Malki said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "should not be afraid... if Israel has any complaints [against us] they should join and present their case to the ICC".

ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda in January launched a preliminary investigation into possible war crimes during last year's Gaza war.

The Palestinians have already sent the court documents authorising the prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories since June 2014.

About 2,200 Palestinians and 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed during the 50-day conflict in July and August.

Preliminary investigation 

Any probe of alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza would also include an investigation of the firing of rockets and mortars by Hamas fighters at civilian areas in Israel.

Despite Israel not being a signatory to the world’s only permanent court for the most serious crimes, the tribunal could prosecute Israelis for alleged crimes committed on Palestinian territory.

The ICC would face challenges in arresting Israeli suspects however as it does not have its own police force and relies on the cooperation of member states.

The Palestinians could in theory now refer a specific situation to the court, such as Jewish settlement building on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank.

But Malki said Palestine would await the outcome of Bensouda’s initial probe.

“We are not in the mood to threaten. We want to wait, we want to give the court ample time to complete their preliminary examination,” he said.

Netanyahu has accused the Palestinian unity government — including Hamas which Israel considers a terrorist organisation — of “manipulating” the court.

Israel retaliated to Palestine’s signing of the Rome Treaty by cutting off millions of dollars in monthly tax payments it collects on behalf of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu, who was reelected prime minister last month, vowed during his campaign that a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch.

He has since released the frozen funds, which constitute two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority’s income, excluding foreign aid.

Israeli retaliation 

On Tuesday, 26 Americans filed a complaint to the US Attorney General requesting the justice ministry prosecute Hamas leaders for “war crimes”.

The 26, some of whom also hold Israeli passports, called for Hamas leaders to be prosecuted for firing rockets at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv during the 2014 war.

In February, a US jury found the PA and Palestine Liberation Organisation responsible for six attacks which killed dozens of people and ordered them to pay the victims’ families more than $650 million (605 million euros) in damages.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the accession of the court’s 123 member, slamming Israel and the United States for trying to punish Palestine for joining.

“Governments seeking to penalise Palestine for joining the ICC should immediately end their pressure,” said HRW’s international justice counsel Balkees Jarrah.

“What’s objectionable is the attempts to undermine international justice, not Palestine’s decision to join a treaty to which over 100 countries around the world are members.”

The Palestinians won observer status at the United Nations in 2012 and according to the Palestinian Authority, around 135 countries have now recognised the state of Palestine.

BEIRUT — Daesh fighters seized most of a Palestinian camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday, nearing President Bashar Al Assad's seat of power.

A rival jihadist group said Sharia law would govern a city seized by rebels in the northwest of Syria.

Though unrelated, the developments showed the dominant role of jihadists in a war entering its fifth year and the risk they pose to Assad even as he appears in control of Damascus and other populous areas in western Syria.

The Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, a few kilometres from the heart of Damascus and home to thousands of people, has been in insurgent hands and besieged by government forces since the early days of a conflict that began in 2011.

Mirroring the way Daesh has grown elsewhere in Syria, its fighters seized control of areas of the camp from other insurgents, helped by rebels from the rival Al Qaeda-linked Al Nusra Front who switched sides, a political activist in the area said.

"They pushed from the Hajar Aswad area and Al Nusra fighters have joined them, they have pledged loyalty to Daesh," the activist said, speaking via Skype on condition of anonymity.

Anwar Abdel Hadi, the Palestine Liberation Organisation representative in Damascus, said: “[Daesh] went into Yarmouk today. There are clashes between the militants at the moment.”

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Daesh controlled some of the main streets in the devastated camp.

Government officials could not be reached for comment.

Yarmouk was home to half a million Palestinian refugees before Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011. Its population is now about 18,000, according to a UN estimate.

Hassan Hassan, an analyst and author of a book about Daesh, said the group had long wanted a foothold close to the capital but that it was unlikely to be able to storm it.

“The regime has established strong checkpoints and infrastructure to prevent forces from actually getting inside Damascus. But they are edging closer.”

Daesh has been trying to expand into western areas of Syria far away from its strongholds on the other side of the country, where it has faced a campaign of air strikes by the United States and allied Arab countries.

Recent forays by Daesh have focused on government-held areas that are not being targeted in that campaign. Such attacks appear to be gathering pace.

Its fighters killed 45 people including entire families, burning some people to death, in a massacre overnight Monday-Tuesday in the government-held village of Mabouja, a 60km drive east of Hama city, the Observatory reported.

Sharia law for Idlib

The United States has ruled out the idea of linking up with Assad against their common enemy. Washington sees Assad as part of the problem.

Together with Turkey and the conservative Sunni governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, they want to see him gone from power.

Assad, backed by his allies in Shiite Islamist Iran and the Lebanese group Hizbollah, has sought to shore up control over the west, particularly the cities of Homs, Hama and the coast.

On Saturday, the government lost control of the northwestern city of Idlib to an alliance of Islamist groups including the Nusra Front, which fought Daesh last year though they share a similar interpretation of Islam.

Nusra Front leader Abu Mohamad Al Golani indicated on Wednesday that Idlib, seized by groups including the hardline Ahrar Al Sham, would be run according to Sharia law.

“We salute the people of Idlib and their stand with their sons, the Mujahideen... and God willing they will enjoy the justice of Sharia, which will preserve their religion and their blood,” Golani said in an audio recording posted online.

Idlib is only the second provincial capital to slip from government hands. The first was Raqqa, which Islamic State has turned into its de facto capital. Idlib is around 30km from the Turkish border.

The groups that seized Idlib have rejected a call by the mainstream, Turkey-based opposition to headquarter an interim Syrian government there. The Observatory reported that insurgents were destroying cigarettes and tobacco, which many Islamists view as banned in Islam.

The news agency of the Vatican’s missionary department reported on its website that a 57-year-old Greek Orthodox priest had been kidnapped by “jihadist militias” in Idlib after he decided to stay in the city. It cited local sources.

Golani also said Idlib residents would be treated well and public property would be protected. He urged employees of essential facilities including bakeries to go back to work and said an Islamic court should be set up to settle disputes.

Nusra Front’s influence has been expanding in northwestern Syria. It has crushed at least two Western-backed rebel groups in recent months and seized weapons including US-made anti-tank weapons with which they were supplied.

Golani said the Idlib takeover showed that seeking the support of the West and regional powers was an “illusion”.

The southern region near the border with Jordan and Israel is one of the last footholds of mainstream rebel groups. They have been fighting back against an offensive launched by Damascus to reclaim the border zone.

Tikrit, Iraq — Iraq vowed Wednesday to reclaim the entire country from jihadists after having liberated the city of Tikrit, its biggest boost yet in the fight against Daesh terror group.

Speaking from a newly secured area of central Tikrit, Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said the government was "determined to liberate every inch of Iraqi land".

Iraqi fighters picked their way through the rubble-strewn streets of the city, wary of any last-ditch attack from diehard Daesh fighters and of the thousands of bombs they left behind.

A major military push saw Iraqi police and allied forces retake the city centre on Tuesday but small pockets of jihadist militants remained.

A top leader in the Badr organisation, one of the most prominent Shiite militias in Iraq, admitted that Tikrit had not been completely purged of jihadist fighters.

"Snipers are still there and many buildings are booby-trapped," Karim Al Nuri told AFP in the northern Tikrit neighbourhood of Qadisiya.

A commander for the Ketaeb Imam Ali militia said his men were involved in a firefight in the north of the city in the morning.

They “tried to advance on the university”, Rasul Al Abadi told AFP, adding that there were “no more than 30” Daesh fighters left in the city’s vast Qadisiya district.

Fleeing jihadists 

Interior Minister Mohammed Salem Al Ghaban told reporters during a visit to Tikrit that Daesh fighters had tried to cross the Tigris east of the city.

A paramilitary commander said they also launched an attack Wednesday from a mountain hideout northeast of Tikrit in an attempt to open a safe passage to the town of Hawija for fleeing militants.

There has been concern that Iraq does not have enough specialised ordnance clearance teams to handle the quantity of traps left by Daesh fighters.

Ghaban said that security forces had so far found 185 rigged houses and 900 bombs planted on roads.

An official from the governor’s office said municipal teams were already at work in some reconquered neighbourhoods, cleaning debris and restoring power.

On Tuesday, Abadi claimed the city was liberated but the US-led coalition supporting Baghdad from the air said there was “still work to be done”.

Iraq’s top brass was training its sights on Mosul, which jihadist fighters seized from the government at the same time as Tikrit in June last year.

Defence Minister Khaled Al Obeidi vowed Wednesday to press on with offensive operations.

“We are coming, Anbar. We are coming Nineveh,” he said in a recorded address, referring to the last two provinces still largely controled by Daesh.

The loss of Tikrit further isolates Mosul, the capital of Nineveh and the main Daesh hub in Iraq, with Baghdad’s forces now poised to push north while Kurdish forces close in from the three other directions.

Zaid Al Ali, author of “The Struggle For Iraq’s Future”, said however that the fighting in Tikrit was made easier by the fact that the city was largely emptied of its population even before the operation began on March 2.

“Mosul still has a large civilian population, which will make things very complicated,” the analyst said.

US-Iran tension 

The government has provided no information on how many fighters were killed, wounded or captured in the fighting but Baghdad’s forces are believed to have suffered heavy casualties.

Iraqi army and police forces, as well as volunteers and Iran-backed Shiite militias, completely surrounded Tikrit within two weeks of launching the operation.

There was a lull in fighting when government forces and their allies balked at the number of snipers, booby traps, berms and trenches which Daesh was using to defend its city centre redoubt.

Iran was Baghdad’s top foreign partner in the early stages of the operation but Iraqi forces were unable to achieve a breakthrough without coalition air strikes.

Abadi requested the strikes and US jets began bombing Daesh targets in Tikrit on March 25.

The Iraqi government had tried and failed several times to retake the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein but the latest operation was larger and better organised.

A significant number of local Sunni tribal forces were involved in the battle to liberate Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital, from Daesh, in an effort to defuse sectarian resentment.

Amid concerns over abuses committed by Shiite fighters against Sunnis in recaptured areas, the UN’s top envoy in Iraq reiterated an appeal for civilians to be protected.

“Civilians’ safety and security must be protected in line with fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law,” Jan Kubis said in a statement.

ADEN — Houthi rebels and allies backed by tanks pushed on Wednesday into central Aden, the main foothold of fighters loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, witnesses said, despite more than a week of air strikes by Saudi-led coalition forces.

The alliance of mainly Sunni Gulf Arab states has also attacked the northern Shiite Houthis from the sea but their advance towards the southern port city has been relentless.

Asked for his reaction, a Saudi military spokesman said Houthi forces had been in Aden before the alliance began its campaign on March 26 and had fought daily battles against the people of the city. 

Tanks appearing there had always been a possibility, he said without elaborating.

The Houthis, with vital support from army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, emerged as the dominant force in Yemen after they took over the capital six months ago and they now control much of the Arabian Peninsula country.

Aden residents said they saw large groups of fighters carrying rocket propelled grenades accompanied by tanks and trucks mounted with machine guns in the Khor Maksar district — part of a neck of land linking central Aden to the rest of the city.

Many people fled the area and some were trying to get on a ship leaving the port.

Earlier on Wednesday, dozens of fighters were killed in clashes between Houthi fighters and their army allies on one side, and militiamen and tribesmen opposing them around Aden and elsewhere in south Yemen, witnesses and militia sources said.

One witness saw the bodies of eight Houthi fighters and three pro-Hadi militiamen lying on the streets of Khor Maksar amid sporadic gunfire, as well as snipers mounting positions atop homes.

Hadi left the city on Thursday for Saudi Arabia, whose stated aim is to restore him to power.

In Dhalea, 100km north of Aden, air strikes supported militiamen fighting street battles against the Houthis, who are allied with Saudi Arabia’s regional foe Iran, and backed by army units loyal to longtime ruler Saleh, who was pushed out three years ago after “Arab Spring” demonstrations.

Ten of the militia fighters were killed, residents said, but Houthi forces and allied army units were being pushed back.

The Houthis suffered heavier losses in battles with tribesmen at a major army base in the southeastern province of Shabwa, where 35 Houthi and army fighters were killed along with 20 tribesmen.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led air attacks continued on targets nationwide overnight.

An explosion at a dairy factory in Yemen’s Hodaida Port killed at least 25 workers, medical sources said, with conflicting accounts attributing the blast to an air strike or to a rocket landing from a nearby army base.

The 26September website of Yemen’s factionalised army, which mostly sides with the Houthis, said 37 workers were killed and 80 wounded at the dairy and oils factory “during the aggressive air strikes which targeted the two factories last night”.

Medical sources in the city said 25 workers at the plant had been killed at the factory, which was located near an army camp loyal to Saleh.

Residents and witnesses contacted by Reuters said the air strikes had targeted the factory shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Others said rockets fired from the base — possibly as retaliation against the bombings — hit the factory.

Other air strikes hit Houthi positions along the Saudi border in Yemen’s far north, an army base in the central highlands, air defence infrastructure in the eastern Marib province, and a coastguard position near Hodaida.

A raid at a coastal defence station at Maidi Port in Hajja province north of Hodaida killed six soldiers, workers there said, while further strikes hit an army camp in Sanaa and a government facility in Saadeh in the north of Yemen.

UNICEF said that at least 62 children had been killed and 30 wounded in the violence over the past week, and the United Nations said an attack on a refugee camp in northern Yemen, which medics blamed on an air strike, broke international law.

Not including Wednesday’s toll, 103 civilians and fighters had been killed in the city since clashes began last Tuesday, Aden-based NGO the Field Medical Organisation said.

DUBAI — Jetliners from the United Arab Emirates' two main airlines avoided a possible midair collision after they got too close to each other earlier this week.

The incident happened Sunday as passenger planes from Dubai-based Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways were travelling in opposite directions between the Gulf federation and the island nation of Seychelles.

Both carriers have recently rerouted flights to the archipelago nation to avoid Yemeni airspace due to fighting there.

Emirates, the Middle East's biggest carrier, said its Flight 706 was returning to Dubai when what it called "an air traffic control incident" happened in airspace monitored by air traffic controllers in Mumbai, India.

It said it informed authorities of the incident and later filed an air safety report that will be forwarded to investigators in the Indian city.

"We will be cooperating fully with Mumbai Air Traffic Control in the subsequent investigation," the carrier said in a statement.

Both it and Etihad said that passenger safety was not compromised.

Neither carrier would say how close the two planes came to each other, though they were close enough that an onboard crash warning system issued what is known as a "resolution advisory”, according to an official at one of the airlines, who was not authorised to speak publicly.

That level of alert, more serious than a broader "traffic advisory”, tells pilots to take urgent action such as climbing or descending to avoid a possible collision.

"There was an error made somewhere along the way," either by air traffic control, the crew or both, said Patrick Smith, a commercial airline pilot and author of "Cockpit Confidential”.

Smith said receiving a resolution advisory is rare but not unheard of. "This equipment is there to prevent a near miss," he said.

Etihad said the traffic collision avoidance system onboard the Airbus A320 from Abu Dhabi "ensured that safe vertical separation of both aircraft was maintained at all times”.

Emirates and Etihad have both grown rapidly in recent years, enticing long-haul transit passengers through their Gulf hubs aboard relatively young aircraft.

Emirates is owned by the government of Mideast commercial hub Dubai, while Etihad is controlled by the oil-rich Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi.

They each operate multiple flights weekly to Seychelles, a tropical tourism destination that has built close ties to the Emirates.

The Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority said the circumstances and cause of the incident are not clear, and noted it has mandated "the latest technology" onboard aircraft it certifies. It said it has reached out to Indian regulators to help in the investigation but has received no response so far.

"GCAA is following up on the investigation process and is committed to ensure a safe and secure civil aviation system," it said.

CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said Washington's release to Egypt of F-16 jets and missiles will boost the fight against Islamist militants, according to a statement from his office.

The move, announced Tuesday, comes as Egypt plays a key role in the Arab offensive against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and engages in the fight against Daesh terror group in Libya.

"The resumption of American military aid to Egypt and contracted weapons deals goes towards achieving the shared strategic goals of both countries," Sisi said in a telephone conversation with Obama, according to the statement issued overnight.

That is particularly true in "efforts to combat extremists and terrorists, and secure the Sinai Peninsula," Sisi added.

Jihadists in the restive peninsula launched an insurgency that has killed scores of policemen and soldiers since the military, then led by Sisi, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

A deadly crackdown on Morsi's followers prompted Washington to suspend the aid.

Aside from the high-tech war planes, Obama also agreed to deliver 20 Harpoon missiles and up to 125 M1A1 Abrams tank kits.

Washington has annually offered about $1.5 billion (1.4 billion euros) in aid to Egypt, including $1.3 billion in military aid.

TRIPOLI — An unidentified warplane carried out air strikes on the airport in Zintan, a town in western Libya allied with the internationally recognised government, and gunmen killed three guards at a checkpoint in a rival city, officials said.

No one claimed responsibility for the strike, which slightly damaged a passenger terminal, but a military source in Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni's government blamed Libya Dawn.

The armed group seized the capital Tripoli last summer after weeks of factional fighting and set up a rival administration to Thinni's. The military source said Libya Dawn forces also hit the town of Rujban, again without causing casualties.

"A warplane attacked Zintan Airport this morning with seven explosives, one of which went off next to the passenger terminal and damaged the front of the building, and there are no casualties," Zintan Airport spokesman Omar Matooq said.

Separately, military officials said three fighters were killed by unknown gunmen at a checkpoint outside Misrata, a city used as a base for Libya Dawn forces.

Fighting in Libya has continued even as the United Nations holds negotiations between the two rival factions to try to form a unity government, establish a ceasefire and put Libya's transition back on track nearly four years after the fall of leader Muammar Qadhafi.

Since Libya Dawn reinstated the old parliament and set up its own government, armed factions have carried out tit-for-tat air strikes for weeks on infrastructure and oil facilities, the main source of income in the North African OPEC producer.

Oil production is currently 564,000 barrels per day, because fighting has closed some ports and fields, compared to 1.6 million bpd produced before the anti-Qadhafi uprising.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme were heading into double overtime, with the United States saying enough progress has been made to extend the talks into Thursday.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf says Secretary of State John Kerry will stay at least until then to continue negotiating.

"We continue to make progress but have not reached a political understanding," she said late Wednesday.

Iran and six powers have been locked in haggling over what an initial understanding should look like for nearly a week, reflecting the significant gaps facing them.

Officials say the intention is to produce a joint statement outlining general political commitments to resolving concerns about Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. In addition, they are trying to fashion other documents that would lay out in more detail the steps they must take by June 30 to meet those goals.

Negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme appeared headed for double overtime on Wednesday, beset by competing claims after diplomats abandoned a March 31 deadline for the outline of a deal and agreed to press on.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said negotiators were still facing a "tough struggle”, indicating the talks were not likely to end anytime soon. And other officials indicated the efforts, already extended into Wednesday, probably would drag into Thursday.

At the same time, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif accused his country's negotiating partners, particularly the US, of having "defective" political will.

"I've always said that an agreement and pressure do not go together, they are mutually exclusive," he told reporters. "So our friends need decide whether they want to be with Iran based on respect or whether they want to continue based on pressure."

Iran and six powers have been locked in haggling over what an initial understanding should look like for nearly a week, reflecting the significant gaps facing them.

Steinmeier said he hoped that when the talks end "we won't just be reporting about closing gaps" but also will be providing details of agreement on important points. His comment reflected unhappiness with Iran's insistence that the Lausanne talks should end only with a vague statement of principles.

The German said he held out hope that the sides would be able to negotiate a preliminary accord that will let them embark on a new phase of talks aiming for a final deal by June.

Earlier, Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters that if the sides make progress on the text of a joint statement, then that could be issued by the end of Wednesday. But he suggested the statement would contain no specifics.

A senior Western official quickly pushed back, saying that nothing about a statement had been decided and that Iran's negotiating partners would not accept a document that contained no details. The official was not authorised to speak to the negotiations by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Araghchi named differences on sanctions relief on his country as one dispute — but suggested some softening of Tehran's long-term insistence that all sanctions on his country be lifted immediately once a final deal takes effect.

He told Iranian TV that economic, financial, oil and bank sanctions imposed by the US, the European Union and others should be done away with as "the first step of the deal”. Alluding to separate UN sanctions he said a separate "framework" was needed for them.

Araghchi has spoken of a similar arrangement before. But both Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have since demanded full and total sanctions lifting, and his floating of his approach now suggested an Iranian shift.

He also pushed back on US demands of strict controls on Iran's uranium enrichment-related research and development, saying such activities "should continue".

The US and its negotiating partners want to crimp Iranian efforts to improve the performance of centrifuges that enrich uranium because advancing the technology could let Iran produce material that could be used to arm a nuclear weapon much more quickly than at present.

The exchanges reflected significant gaps between the sides, and came shortly after the end of the first post-deadline meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry, his British and German counterparts and Zarif in the Swiss town of Lausanne. They and their teams were continuing a marathon effort to bridge still significant gaps and hammer out a framework accord.

Eager to avoid a collapse in the discussions, the United States and others claimed late Tuesday that enough progress had been made to warrant an extension after six days of intense bartering.