Iran faces off with global powers in game of brinkmanship

Vienna

In a game of high-stakes diplomatic brinkmanship, global powers were readying Wednesday for a late-night push to reach a deal curbing Tehran's nuclear ambitions and ending a 13-year standoff.

 With all bets off after ministers missed yet another deadline to seal the accord, US Secretary of State John Kerry was huddling with his team in a rainy Vienna to pore over documents seeking to find a way forward.

 Iran and six world powers have now effectively given themselves until Friday to reach a deal by extending the terms of a November 2013 interim accord, after missing two target dates in this round of talks now in their 12th day.

 But as they stare each down, both Iran and the United States have now insisted there is no target date, and they plan to keep talking in Vienna until a deal emerges or not.

 "It's doable by tomorrow night (Thursday) if talks advance this evening," said a Western diplomatic source.

 French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and his British counterpart Philip Hammond were due back in the Austrian capital later Wednesday, to pow-wow once more with Kerry and Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif.

 "You always get to a place where you're at a precipice," a senior US administration official said late Tuesday just hours after the talks were prolonged.