Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Iran has been given another reprieve in the campaign to reach a nuclear agreement with the West.

The P5+1 nations ( five permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France) agreed to grant Iran a seven-month extension of its interim nuclear accord.

The extension, pressed by the United States, was approved in wake of the failure of negotiations for a permanent accord meant to remove most international sanctions from Teheran.

Officials said Iran would continue to benefit from sanctions relief. They said P5+1 hoped that Teheran would not increase uranium enrichment or resume weapons research.

Geostrategy-Direct, in its Nov. 26 edition, reports that Iran is capable of a nuclear weapons breakout under the existing framework under discussion.

Kerry said Iran has rolled back its nuclear program for the first time in a decade. He said Iran eliminated its 20 percent enriched uranium stockpile and froze the Arak nuclear reactor, capable of producing plutonium.

“We don’t want just any agreement,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said. “We want the right agreement.”

The Nov. 24 deadline expired in what marked the second time in 2014 that Iran and P5+1 failed to reach a nuclear agreement. Officials said Iran and P5+1 narrowed their positions, but Teheran was not expected agree to additional concessions when talks resume in December.

“These talks are not going to get easier just because we extend them,” Kerry, who earlier reported “final gaps” in the negotiations, said. “They’ve been tough. And they’re going to stay tough.”

“We would be fools to walk away from a situation where the breakout time has already been expanded rather than narrowed and where the world is safer because this program is in place,” Kerry said.

  U.S. wins an extension for Iran in its negotiations for a nuclear deal, WorldTribune.com