VIENNA – Foreign ministers involved in the P5+1 negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have elected to continue negotiating and stay the night in Austria, despite earlier reports that they would leave before the end of the day.

It was previously reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif planned to fly to Tehran to consult with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but Zarif apparently changed his mind, according to an Iranian source as reported in Haaretz. Zarif told reporters that there had been “no new ideas or remarkable proposals to take to Tehran,” according to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the state news agency of Iran.

After Zarif’s announcement, a State Department spokesperson said that Secretary of State John Kerry would not be leaving for Paris this evening, as he had previously announced. Instead, Kerry participated in a meeting with Zarif and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton, followed by a discussion with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who was also previously believed to be departing Vienna.

Earlier today, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond emerged from four hours of talks to reveal that there is a “very significant gap” to close in negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers, with a western diplomat observing a “somber and serious” mood gripping the Austrian capital.

[Photo: Nabak / Wikimedia ]