
Six world power have never been so close to a deal with Iran that would  resolve the decade-long nuclear standoff once and for all, but the final  phase of the negotiations will be the hardest, Germany's foreign  minister said on Thursday.
"We have never been so close to a deal  as now. But the truth is that the final phase of the talks that lay  before us is probably the most difficult," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter  Steinmeier told reporters after meeting Iran's President Hassan Rouhani  on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
"Now is the time to  end this conflict. I hope that Iran ... in view of the situation in the  world and the situation in the Middle East, knows and senses that a  collapse of the talks now is not permissible."