Iran nuclear talks: Now or never for a deal?
November 17, 2014 8:00PM ET
by Michael Pizzi @michaelwpizzi
With the deadline less than a week away for a deal to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, talks between world powers and Tehran resume this week with renewed urgency. The window of opportunity for an historic compromise could be closing as naysayers in Washington and Tehran — not to mention U.S. allies such as Israel, the Gulf Arab states and even possibly France — demand a harder line from their respective sides.
The recent Republican takeover of the Senate could hamstring President Barack Obama’s ability to deliver on promised sanctions relief — the key incentive for Iran to cede to Western demands and curtail its nuclear enrichment program beyond what's required by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Hawkish U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have threatened to revive a proposal that would impose additional sanctions on Iran if negotiations produce a deal they deem unsatisfactory, citing the existential fear that Iran could furtively divert its nuclear enrichment programs towards more nefarious purposes — namely, a nuclear bomb. These threats from Congress could potentially unravel the delicately constructed nuclear cooperation framework between the West and Iran that has already born fruit. (The provisional agreement that expires on Monday has seen Iran, over the past year, voluntarily halt enrichment to the more worrisome level of 20 percent, and accept further caps and curbs on its nuclear work to reassure Western powers of the program’s non-military intent).
Despite the cooperation of the past year, the technical and political gaps between the negotiators meeting in Vienna remain wide. But according to Ali Vaez, a scientist and Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group, “the reality is that both sides want a deal, and no time is better for clinching it than right now.”
Waiting for Bibi's veto, though I'm hoping Obama goes commando and tells Netanyahu and his American sycophants, Republican and Democrat, to go fuck themselves!