US Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Iran Nuclear Program Needs Second Stage of Talks

Technical issues related to Tehran's nuclear program will require a second stage of negotiations between the United States and Iran, which, according to Washington, may take from a month to three months, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

"Phase two is they have to commit to very specific negotiations on the disposition of the highly-enriched uranium that still is buried deep in a mountain somewhere," he said at a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, commenting on the dialogue between Washington and Tehran. "They have to agree on negotiating severe and long-term limitations and/or cancellation of enrichment," he said.

"These are obviously highly technical matters, so I don't think those can be worked out in five days. That would require a team of experts to meet for a 30, 60, 90-day period to work out the details. But they have to commit to their willingness for this. For example, they have to commit to say ‘We will dispose of the enriched uranium’ and the question now is what is the mechanism which will do so."