Western Foreign Ministers found a unified position Saturday on need for an ironclad deal with Iran that must clearly demonstrate Tehran's verifiable rejection of nuclear weapons if it is to be allowed to build a civilian nuclear programme and have sanctions lifted.
Press statements by all parties, and indications from diplomats in Paris, showed that US Secretary of State John Kerry's brief talks with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius allowed both sides to "tune up" their positions, and Fabius clearly set out French concerns about the current status of talks with Iran.
Those talks were later expanded to include top diplomats from Britain, Germany and the EU.
"These are multilateral negotiations," Fabius told journalists, "and we are making sure our position is known." Kerry said that both sides were "on the same page" and he said both he and Fabius "want an agreement that is solid." The French Minister said this "solid agreement" requires more work which needs to be done on the parameters of the proposed accord to be signed between the P5+1 and Iran on March 31. Fabius wants better clarification on time-frames for the accord, on inspections and controls and on the number of uranium centrifuges Iran will keep for its civilian programme after the accord is signed.
Like Fabius, Kerry said there must be "certainty" in the guarantees from Iran on its nuclear programme.
"We want an agreement that will guarantee that we hold Iran accountable to the highest standards for any kind of programme that continues so that we know in fact it is a peaceful programme," Kerry said.
This echoed exactly what Fabius said as he called for Iran to "concretely demonstrate with certainty" that it renounces the search for nuclear weapons.
Ahead of Saturday's talks with the four Foreign Ministers and EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, there were clearly-stated "divergences" over what position to take relative to Iran in the closing stages of talks.
But after the Fabius-Kerry meeting, the US official said that he had "the same assessment" as his French counterpart and all participants agreed that it was up to Iran to prove its good faith and produce proof of its intentions as we move forward.