US Position on Sanctions Holding Up Nuclear Deal — Iranian Media Report

According to news reports, the prospects for a deal are good. “But, we have not seen mutual commitment by the US“. He observed that the United States has “aligned itself with Iran’s interests in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen”, and that after two decades of insisting that Iran give up its nuclear aspirations, the United States “is advancing a deal to legitimize their arch-rival’s nuclear program”. The original June 30 deadline was extended, and the coming days will tell whether a final agreement will be reached.

“If it’s not verifiable, we’re not going to agree to it, and that’s one of several things that are critical to it”. The Americans want no restrictions, whereas Iranian officials say they are concerned that unrestricted monitoring could be a cover for Western spying. The JPOA was meant to stop Iran’s work on a nuclear weapon until a comprehensive agreement is reached.

“It’s unsurprising that the Russians would seek to strengthen a rabidly anti-American, destabilizing force in the Middle East by allowing yet more military weaponry to flow into Iran“, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said in an interview. Doing so, however, would make it more hard for U.S. President Barack Obama to win congressional approval of an Iran deal.

His British counterpart Philip Hammond noted that although talks are moving forward, progress is “painfully slow”, Reuters reported. “We’re working”, he said, adding, “We’re not there yet”.

A day before, Obama had reportedly told senators that the chances of an accord being inked were “less than 50-50”.

Asked how long the talks could go on, Kerry said: “I’ve just said this is not open-ended”. One recent example of such a misleading statement was made by US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Third, the deal might provide for greater inspections, but these will not be robust enough to detect or deter Iranian cheating. In addressing these worries, the USA administration committed to keeping the legal foundations of the sanction architecture intact to ensure that Iran could be punished through an immediate snap-back of sanctions in case of noncompliance. “Since then, we have seeing changes in a lot of issues, from sanctions to the period of agreement to nuclear issues”. That’s something Washington opposes – and an issue Zarif appeared to touch on in his comments to Iranian state television.

“In my opinion, it will be found soon”, he said after hosting a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation that saw him meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Thursday.

Second, in 10-15 years Iran will be permitted to expand its already robust nuclear program as it wishes.

Secretary of State John Kerry met Thursday with his negotiating partners and later with Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif.

“There is no evidence whatever that they have now taken a strategic direction to reverse course”, Bolton said. Iran will start violating this deal before the ink is dry in Vienna.