Region

ADEN — Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi led a meeting of governors in the southern city of Aden on Sunday as he resumed some of his duties after escaping house arrest in the capital.

The Western-backed leader fled to Aden on Saturday after sneaking out of his residence in Sanaa, where he was being held by a Shiite militia group that has seized control of the capital.

The militiamen, known as Houthis, have installed a "presidential" council to replace Hadi, who after his escape declared all their measures "null and illegitimate".

Hadi tendered his resignation last month under pressure from the Houthis but it was never approved by parliament.

On Sunday, he received the governors of various southern Yemeni provinces, Aden governor Abdulaziz Bin Habtoor said.

"The president will keep up his political efforts to lead from Aden," Bin Habtoor told reporters after the meeting, which was also attended by army and security chiefs.

“His priority is to normalise the security situation in Aden in order to receive foreign delegates who have requested appointments to meet him,” he said.

Aden is jointly controlled by troops loyal to Hadi and allied local militia known as the Popular Committees.

Southern Yemen is friendly territory for Hadi, himself a southerner, and local leaders have refused to recognise the authority of the council formed by the Houthis.

An aide to Hadi said the president used the meeting to call for restarting a political transition process that stalled after the Houthis overran Sanaa in September.

“He underlined the need to implement the recommendations of the national dialogue” which include turning the republic into a federation of six regions, the aide said.

The Houthis, who hail from the northern Saada province where they fought the central government for a decade, have rejected the proposed division of regions in the federation plan.

The president called Saturday for the national commission overseeing the drafting of a new constitution to again convene, saying it should meet in Aden or Taez province until Sanaa “returns as a safe capital for all Yemenis”.

Aden ‘temporary capital’ 

By escaping house arrest, “Hadi has regained the political initiative and stripped the Houthis of legitimacy,” said analyst Fahd Sultan of the Yemeni Political Reform organisation.

Talks sponsored by UN envoy Jamal Benomar in Sanaa to end the political deadlock stalled Saturday following Hadi’s escape but were expected to resume late Sunday.

Benomar had announced on Thursday a “breakthrough” in talks as parties, including Houthis, agreed on the “form of the legislative authority in the interim period”.

But the pan-Arab Nasserist Party said such discussions are “no longer useful” and invited Hadi to “assumes his duties as a head of state”.

Powerful tribes in the oil-rich province of Marib, east of Sanaa, went further, urging Hadi to declare Aden a “temporary capital of Yemen until Sanaa is liberated”.

“Hadi’s exit has turned the table on all parties, especially those involved in talks,” said political analyst Majed Al Modhaji.

It also “marks a change in the balance of power in favour of the state and at the expense of the Houthis”, according to Ibrahim Sharqieh, from the Brookings Institution in Doha.

He said that Hadi, elected by some 7 million voters on February 21, 2012, “continues to represent the legitimate authority at home and internationally”.

The Houthis last month seized the presidential palace and besieged Hadi’s residence, prompting him to offer his resignation.

They have pushed their advance south and west into mainly Sunni areas of Yemen, where they have met with fierce resistance from tribesmen and Al Qaeda.

The crisis has raised fears of Yemen — a key US ally in the fight against Al Qaeda that borders Saudi Arabia — collapsing into a failed state.

ANKARA — Turkish forces swept into Syria overnight to rescue about 40 soldiers who had been surrounded for months by Daesh militants while guarding the tomb of a revered Turkish figure.

The Syrian government described the operation as act of "flagrant aggression" and said it would hold Ankara responsible for its repercussions.

The action, which involved tanks, drones and reconnaissance planes as well as several hundred ground troops, was the first such incursion by Turkish troops into Syria since the start of the civil war there nearly four years ago.

The military said no clashes took place during the operation although one soldier had been killed in an accident.

The 38 soldiers who had been guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, were brought safely home. The tomb, which is on a site within Syria that Ankara considers sovereign territory as agreed in a 1921 treaty, was relocated.

Normally, the detachment is rotated every six months but the last one was trapped there for eight months by Daesh fighters.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that Turkey had not sought permission or assistance for the mission but had informed allies in the coalition against Daesh once it began.

"This was an extremely successful operation with no loss to our rights under international law," he said, flanked by the chief of the military and the defence minister.

The Syrian government said in a statement that Turkey would be held responsible for its breach of the treaty after failing to wait for an agreement from Damascus before proceeding with the operation.

The Turkish government had informed the Syrian consulate in Istanbul about the operation but had not awaited Syria's agreement, it said, adding that the operation was a violation of the 1921 agreement.

A Turkish security source said the operation was conducted via the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani with the support of local Kurdish authorities. Kurdish forces, backed by US-led air strikes, drove Daesh from Kobani last month.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the tomb had been temporarily moved to a new site within Syria north of the village of Esmesi close to the Turkish border.

Davutoglu said about 100 military vehicles, including 39 tanks, were involved along with 572 military personnel including special forces commandos. Turkish fighter jets were on alert during the mission but did not need to be deployed, he said.

Operation ‘Shah Euphrates’

Turkey has been reluctant to take an active role in the US-led military campaign against Daesh, partly because it wants to see the military action target Syrian government forces as much as the insurgents.

But the Turkish government said late last year that Daesh militants were advancing on the mausoleum, perched on the banks of the Euphrates River and made Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France ruled Syria.

Davutoglu had repeatedly said that Turkey would retaliate against any attack on the tomb, which was located 37km from the Syrian border before being moved overnight.

“Countries which do not look after their historic symbols cannot build their future,” he said on Sunday.

The Syrian government statement said the fact that Daesh had not attacked the tomb “confirmed the depth of the ties between the Turkish government and this terrorist organisation”.

Syria accuses Turkey of supporting insurgent groups that have seized control of wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, including Daesh.

Two operations were carried out simultaneously as part of what was dubbed operation “Shah Euphrates”, Davutoglu said, one to Suleyman Shah and the other to secure the area around Esmesi. He said the remaining buildings at the original site were destroyed to prevent their use after the remains were removed.

Turkish soldiers raised the Turkish flag at the site where the tomb was relocated. Davutoglu said it would be returned to its previous location once conditions allowed.

Daesh and other Islamist groups, whose strict Salafi interpretation of Islam deems the veneration of tombs to be idolatrous, have destroyed several tombs and mosques in Syria.

Suleyman Shah was the grandfather of Osman I who founded the Ottoman Empire in 1299. Travelling through modern-day Syria, he fell off his horse and drowned in the Euphrates near the site of the mausoleum, according to historians.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's defence minister criticised the United States on Sunday for declaring a time frame for an offensive to recapture Daesh militants’ northern stronghold of Mosul, saying military commanders should not show their hand to the enemy.

Khaled Al Obeidi said the timing of the Mosul assault was for Iraq to decide, and that a US Central Command official who predicted the attack was likely to take place in April or May had no knowledge of the issue.

Daesh fighters seized Mosul last June as they swept through northern Iraq towards Baghdad, meeting virtually no resistance from the army and establishing a self-declared caliphate straddling the border between Iraq and Syria.

The United States and its allies have waged months of air strikes against Daesh targets and Washington is training up and equipping the Iraqi military to recapture territory. The battle for Mosul — the largest city in northern Iraq — is expected to be pivotal in that struggle.

A US Central Command official said on Thursday that an Iraqi and Kurdish military force of 20,000 to 25,000 troops is being prepared to recapture the city, probably in April or May.

But Obeidi declined to confirm that timetable, and expressed irritation at the remarks from the unnamed US official.

“This is urban warfare and we have civilian populations. It is very important to take time and accuracy in setting the plan for this battle,” he told a news conference in Baghdad.

“A military official should not reveal the timing of an offensive,” he added. “The battle for Mosul starts when preparations are complete, and selecting the time is up to Iraqi military commanders.”

Iraqi officials say the Mosul attack will take place within months, but they have often said Baghdad needs greater international military support and have declined to set a date.

“I don’t know where the American official got this information... They absolutely do not have knowledge on this issue,” Obeidi said.

Following criticism of the US military briefing, the new US defence secretary, Ash Carter, told reporters on Saturday he would not telegraph the precise timing of an offensive to retake Mosul.

Obeidi was speaking as Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi met the general in charge of US forces in the Middle East, General Lloyd Austin.

Abadi noted that international support to Iraq had increased in recent days, his office said, without giving details. He also pointed to progress “mobilising and recruiting people in Nineveh, Anbar and Salahuddin to liberate them from terrorist gangs” referring to the main areas of Deash control.

Obeidi said Iraqi security forces began a military operation on Sunday to drive Daesh fighters out of the western town of Al Baghdadi in Anbar province.

“I believe a major victory will be achieved in the next few hours if our forces maintain a steady advance,” he said.

Last week, Daesh insurgents seized most of Al Baghdadi, threatening a nearby airbase where US Marines are training Iraqi troops.

TRIPOLI — Militants claiming loyalty to Daesh terror group said they were behind Sunday's twin bomb attacks on the residence of the Iranian ambassador in the Libyan capital and a rocket strike on the eastern Labraq Airport, the group said in a statement.

The attack on the ambassador's residence came two days after the group claimed responsibility for a double suicide bombing that killed more than 40 people in the eastern town of Qubbah, one of the worst attacks on civilians since a 2011 uprising toppled Muammar Qadhafi.

Western powers are concerned that Libya is emerging as a thriving battleground for militants loyal to Daesh, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria. Islamist fighters have exploited instability as two rival governments fight for control of territory.

The group has stepped up attacks since Egypt launched air strikes on suspected militant targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna on Monday, a day after militants released a video showing the execution of a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians.

On Sunday, two bombs exploded at the gate of the Iranian ambassador's residence in central Tripoli. Iran's official IRNA news agency confirmed the blasts and said there had been no casualties, adding Iran had already suspended operations there.

"Two devices were laid, one exploded first and then the other. The point of the second bomb was to create confusion," Colonel Jumaa Al Mashri from the National Security Agency told Tripoli-based Al Nabaa television.

A Reuters reporter at the scene saw the second device exploding some 30 minutes after the first. Minor damage could be seen at the gate.

"Soldiers of the Islamic State caliphate targeted the Iranian embassy in Tripoli," the terror group claimed in a statement posted with pictures of a flame on Twitter.

The militants also claimed responsibility for a Grad rocket attack on Labraq Airport, announced by officials on Saturday. No one was hurt. The airport is the main gateway into eastern Libya and Bayda, seat of the internationally recognised prime minister, Abdullah Al Thinni.

His government and the House of Representatives, elected in June, have been working out of the east since a faction called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli in August, reinstating the previous assembly and setting up a rival administration.

Last month, militants claiming affiliation with Daesh stormed the Corinthia luxury hotel in Tripoli, killing five foreigners and at least four Libyans.

Supporters of the group have also taken over government and university buildings in Sirte, a central city and birthplace of Qadhafi, according to residents.

Baghdad — A woman has been named as mayor of Baghdad for the first time, a government spokesman said Saturday, amid widespread corruption and rampant violence.

Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher education, becomes the first female to be given such a post in the whole country, where international rights groups have condemned women's rights abuses.

As mayor — the most important administrative position in the capital — Alwach will deal directly with Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi and holds the prerogatives of a Cabinet minister.

She will begin work Sunday, according to a municipal source.

"Abadi sacked the [former] mayor Naim Aboub and named Dr Zekra Alwach to replace him," government spokesman Rafed Juburi said.

Aboub's removal was not designed as a punishment, although he was regularly accused on social media and by Baghdad residents as incompetent, the spokesman added.

He made headlines in March 2014 when he described his city, beset by brutal sectarian violence and rife with corruption, as "more beautiful than New York and Dubai".

"Aboub is a clown. Abadi should have sacked him from the start," said Yasser Saffar, a Baghdad baker. "All his statements were ridiculous."

Alwach's appointment is a breakthrough for gender equality in Iraq, where rights groups say discrimination and violence against women is widespread.

According to a UN report last year, at least a quarter of Iraqi women aged over 12 are illiterate and just 14 per cent enter the world of work.

Baghdad is currently plagued by car bombings and sectarian killings, and militants from the Daesh terror group have seized much of Anbar province to the west, menacing the capital.

TRIPOLI — Daesh militants unleashed suicide bombings Friday in eastern Libya, killing at least 40 people in what the group said was retaliation for Egyptian air strikes against the extremists' aggressive new branch in North Africa.

The bombings in the town of Qubba, which is controlled by Libya's internationally recognised government, solidified concerns the extremist group has spread beyond the battlefields of Iraq and Syria and established a foothold less than 800 kilometres from the southern tip of Italy.

The militants have taken over at least two Libyan coastal cities on the Mediterranean — Sirte and Darna, which is about 30 kilometres from Qubba. They released a video Sunday that showed the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians who were abducted in Sirte, and Egypt responded Monday with air strikes on Darna.

Daesh has established its presence in Libya by exploiting the country's breakdown since dictator Muammar Qadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011. Hundreds of militias have taken power since then, and some of them have militant ideologies. A militia coalition known as Libya Dawn has taken over Tripoli, where Islamists set up their own parliament and government. Islamist extremist militias controlled the second-largest city of Benghazi until late last year, when army troops began battling them for control.

Daesh claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide bombings in Qubba, but said there were only two attacks, while the government said there were three.

Army spokesman Mohammed Hegazi said one attacker rammed an explosives-packed ambulance into a gas station where motorists were lined up.

"Imagine a car packed with a large amount of explosives striking a gas station; the explosion was huge and many of the injured are in very bad shape while the victims' bodies were torn into pieces," Hegazi said.

Two other bombers detonated vehicles next to the house of the parliament speaker and the nearby security headquarters, he said.

Government spokesman Mohammed Bazaza put the death toll at 40, with at least 70 injured, some seriously. The number of dead was expected to rise. Two security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity becase they were not authorised to talk to the media said at least 45 were killed.

Among the dead were six Egyptians working at a cafe next to the gas station.

Video broadcast from the scene showed dozens of cars wrecked and ablaze, with pools of blood on the asphalt, along with body parts, shoes and shattered glass. Bodies covered in sheets were lined up nearby. The government and parliament announced a week of mourning.

"This terrorist, cowardly and desperate attack only increases our determination to uproot terrorism in Libya and in the region," Bazaza said, adding that Libyan air force jets conducted several air strikes, without specifying where.

Witnesses in the city of Sirte said it was hit by multiple Libyan air strikes Friday, targeting a convention centre that is used as a headquarters by the Islamic State group.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington condemned the attacks in Qubba.

In addition to launching air strikes on Darna earlier last week, Egypt joined Libya's elected government in pressing for a UN Security Council resolution to lift a UN arms embargo on Libya and pave the way for international intervention — similar to the US-led campaign in Syria and Iraq against Daesh group.

But Security Council members US and Britain rejected the call, saying Thursday that Libya needs a national unity government first.

Bazaza repeated an appeal for lifting the arms embargo.

Libya is split between two rival parliaments and governments. The elected and internationally recognised parliament has been forced to relocate to the eastern city of Tobruk near the Egyptian border because Tripoli has been overrun by the Islamist and tribal militias. 

Meanwhile, an older pre-election parliament, supported by the militias, has remained in Tripoli and declared itself legitimate.

As violence has escalated dramatically across the country since summer, hundreds of thousands of Libyans have been displaced and entire cities and towns have been left in ruins. Islamist militias, including extremists from Daesh, are battling government forces for control of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

The Tripoli-based government, which is partially supported by Islamist factions and militias from the western city of Misrata, continued to deny the presence of a Daesh affiliate in Libya. In a speech Thursday, Omar Al Hassi, the chosen prime minister of the Tripoli government, blamed the recent violence on Qadhafi loyalists and said the beheading video was "fabricated".

However Hassi also urged Egyptians to leave the country, saying that authorities can't ensure their safety.

WASHINGTON — Questions persist about whether the struggling Iraqi military will be ready for the operation to retake the country's second largest city from Daesh militants in just a few months.

Iraqi officials continue to insist they haven't gotten the advanced weapons they need for the operation in the northern city of Mosul, and some question whether they will be ready for a spring offensive. But the Pentagon insists the US has sent tens of thousands of weapons and ammunition and more is in the pipeline.

Hakim Al Zamili, the head of the security and defence committee in the Iraqi parliament, told The Associated Press Friday that "any operation would be fruitless" unless the brigades are properly prepared and have the weapons they need.

"I think if these weapons are not made available soon, the military assault might wait beyond spring," he said. "The Americans might have their own calculations and estimations, but we as Iraqis have our own opinion. We are fighting and moving on the ground, so we have better vision and April might be too soon."

A US Central Command official provided some details of the battle plan Thursday, saying the coordinated military mission to retake Mosul will likely begin in April or May and will involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. They have cautioned, however, that if the Iraqis aren't ready, the timing could be delayed.

The core of the fighting force will be five of Iraq's most accomplished brigades, who will go through additional US training before the operation.

But Zamili said that while several of Iraq's units have gone through training recently, "these well-trained brigades cannot get involved in battles without being equipped with advanced and effective weapons that would enable them to penetrate enemy lines”.

His comment reflects a common complaint from the Iraqi government, both in recent months and throughout much of the Iraq war. The US, however, has sent tens of thousands of weapons, ammunition, body armour and other equipment to the country.

According to a senior defence official, the US sent nearly 1,600 Hellfire missiles to Iraq last year and has already delivered 232 more. About 10,000 M-16 assault rifles are due to arrive in the next few weeks, along with 23,000 ammunition magazines. The US also has delivered thousands of rockets, mortar rounds, tank rounds, .50-calibre rounds and 10,000 M-68 combat optical sights, a rifle scope commonly used by the US military.

About 250 mine-resistant, armour-protected vehicles will be delivered in a few weeks, along with sophisticated radio systems for the MRAPs and more ammunition rounds, said the official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The public discussion of the operation, including how many Iraqi brigades would be involved and how Kurdish peshmerga military would be used, triggered questions about whether it provided any key information to the enemy.

The Pentagon doesn’t often disclose as much about an operation before it takes place, but in some cases it can be a strategic tactic intended to affect the enemy, trigger a reaction or even prompt some militants to flee before the assault begins. Military officials also said none of the information released by US Central Command could be put to any operational use by Daesh militants.

The operation itself comes as no surprise to Daesh terror group. Iraqi leaders have for months made it publicly clear that they were planning an operation to retake Mosul and that they were eager to get started. In addition, US officials had already acknowledged they were beginning preparations for the Mosul mission, including using air strikes to shut down supply lines the insurgents were using to get equipment or people in and out of the city.

SANAA/ADEN — Yemen's former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi escaped weeks of house arrest by the Houthi militia at his official residence on Saturday and fled to his home town of Aden, sources close to him said.

Houthi's official status since quitting last month in protest at the Houthis overrunning the presidential palace and his private residence remains unclear because his resignation was never formally accepted by the parliament.

The Houthis, who said they were taken unaware by his flight from the capital, have now called an urgent meeting of the Cabinet in Sanaa's presidential palace, a government official said.

Hadi's flight to Aden follows an agreement between Yemen's rival fations on Friday, brokered by the United Nations, to set up a transitional council that keeps the parliament in place and gives a voice to some other groups.

Hadi fled his residence in disguise, Houthi politburo member Ali Al Qahoum was quoted as saying by the local news website Al Akhbar. But it added that it no longer mattered if the former president remained there or departed.

The United Nations denied reports by two senior political sources in Sanaa that it had helped Hadi travel to Aden as false.

Hadi’s Sanaa residence was looted by Houthi militiamen after he left, witnesses said, but that was denied by Qahoum. The former president arrived at his home in the Aden district of Khormaksar, sources told Reuters.

Early on Saturday, Houthi militiamen opened fire on protesters in the central city of Ibb, killing one person and wounding another, activists said.

The crowd had gathered in a square to demonstrate against the Houthis’ role in overturning the government last month.

Following the shooting, thousands more people took to the streets in protest. Witnesses said the Houthis were deploying more security forces in response.

Western countries are worried that unrest in Yemen could create opportunities for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to plot more attacks against international targets.

Late on Friday a drone destroyed a car carrying suspected members of AQAP in Shawbwa Province, a bastion of the militant group in the rugged mountains of southern Yemen, killing at least three people, residents said.

The United States has acknowledged it carries out drone strikes against militant targets in Yemen but does not comment on specific attacks. The strikes, which have sometimes killed civilians, have angered many people in the country.

BEIRUT — Ten children were among at least 48 people killed in a Syrian village last week when regime forces executed six families of rebel fighters, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

Tuesday's executions took place in the village of Rityan, north of second city Aleppo, after regime forces entered that day during an offensive aimed at cutting rebel supply lines to the Turkish border, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based monitor said that villagers had discovered the bodies when they returned to their homes after the regime forces withdrew a day later.

Five women and 13 rebels from the six families were among the dead.

"The troops and militiamen knew exactly where they lived thanks to the informers who accompanied them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"There was no resistance except in one house where a rebel opened fire at troops before being executed along with his family," he added.

Activist Mamun Abu Omar said some of the bodies had been mutilated.

The brief seizure of Rityan was part of an abortive army offensive launched this week to try to encircle the rebel-held east of Aleppo and relieve two besieged Shiite villages to its north.

By Friday all but one of the villages initially taken by government forces had been recaptured by the rebels, who include fighters of Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front.

The heavy fighting claimed the lives of 129 regime loyalists and 116 rebels, including an Al Nusra commander, according to an observatory toll.

While the ground offensive failed, regime warplanes kept targeting rebel areas of Aleppo city and other parts of the country.

On Saturday, eight people — among them two women and two children — were killed when a barrel bomb hit a building in an opposition-held area of Aleppo city, once Syria's commercial capital.

Five people were also reported killed in rebel shelling of regime-held areas of the city.

The air force also killed at least seven people in rebel areas east of Damascus on Saturday, the observatory said.

According to the monitoring group, they were the latest of nearly 6,000 people killed across Syria since the UN Security Council passed resolution 2139 on February 22 last year.

The observatory “has documented the killing of 5,812 civilians, including 1,733 children, 969 women and 3,110 men in barrel bombings and [other] air raids” over the past year.

The raids have continued despite Resolution 2139, which ordered all sides to end their “indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs”.

Syria’s conflict began as a peaceful pro-democracy revolt but morphed into a civil war that has killed more than 210,000 people since March 2011.

GENEVA — Top nuclear officials of Iran and the United States joined seven-nation talks Saturday in a move that may help resolve technical disputes standing it the way of a deal meant to curb Tehran's atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief for the Islamic Republic.

Technical experts for Iran and the six nations it is negotiating with have been meeting alongside senior political officials. But Saturday was the first time that Iranian Atomic Energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz also joined in.

Western officials say the US decided to send Moniz only after Iran announced that Salehi will be coming. Still, their presence could improve chances of a deal by fast-tracking complex technical details of constraints on Iran's nuclear programmes that are acceptable to Tehran.

They were expected to discuss the number of centrifuges Iran can operate to enrich uranium; how much enriched material it can stockpile; what research and development it may pursue related to enrichment, and the future of a planned heavy water reactor that could produce substantial amounts of plutonium — like enriched uranium, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is also at the talks, with US Secretary of State John Kerry scheduled to join Sunday and Monday.

For months, the negotiations have been primarily between Washington and Tehran. But in London, Kerry insisted “there is absolutely no divergence” between the US and the five other powers — Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — over what Iran needed to agree to, “to prove that its nuclear programme is going to be peaceful in the future”.

World powers and Iran have set an end of March deadline for a framework agreement, with four further months for the technical work to be ironed out. The talks have missed two previous deadlines, and President Barack Obama has said a further extension would make little sense without a basis for continuing discussions.

If the talks fail, Obama may be unable to continue holding off Congress from passing new sanctions against Iran. That, in turn, could scuttle any further diplomatic solution to US-led attempts to increase the time Tehran would need to be able to make nuclear arms. Iran denies any interest in such weapons.

Scepticism about the negotiations already is strong among congressional hardliners, Washington’s closest Arab allies and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to strongly criticise them in an address the US Congress early next month.