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Kerry Mounts Furious Defense Of Iran Nuclear Deal

Kerry Mounts Furious Defense Of Iran Nuclear Deal

By Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry mounted a furious counterattack against critics of the Iran nuclear deal on Thursday, telling skeptical lawmakers that rejection of the accord would give Tehran “a great big green light” to swiftly accelerate its atomic program.

Testifying before Congress for the first time since Iran and world powers reached the deal last week, Kerry fought back against accusations by a senior Republican that America’s top diplomat was “fleeced” by Iranian negotiators in the final round of the Vienna talks.

He insisted that those who oppose the deal, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, are pushing an unrealistic alternative that he dismissed as a “sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran’s complete capitulation.”

“The fact is that Iran now has extensive experience with nuclear fuel cycle technology,” Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We can’t bomb that knowledge away. Nor can we sanction that knowledge away.”

Kerry said that if Congress turns thumbs down on the deal, “the result will be the United States of America walking away from every one of the restrictions we have achieved.”

“We will have squandered the best chance we have to solve this problem through peaceful means,” he said as Congress began a 60-day review of the deal to decide whether to support or reject it.

Opening the hearing, the committee’s Republican chairman, Bob Corker, offered scathing criticism of Kerry for the terms he secured in negotiating the deal. “Not unlike a hotel guest that leaves only with a hotel bathrobe on his back, I believe that you’ve been fleeced,” he said.

Corker chided Kerry and other administration officials for their line of argument that the only alternative to the Iran deal would be more war in the Middle East, saying that the real alternative would be a better deal.

U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the committee, said he has not yet decided how he would vote but said he felt U.S. negotiators had made significant progress.

“Our negotiators got an awful lot, particularly on the nuclear front,” Cardin said.

Under a bill President Barack Obama signed into law in May, Congress has until Sept. 17 to approve or reject the agreement.

Republicans control majorities in both houses of Congress. Many have come out strongly against the pact, which they say will empower Iran and threaten U.S. ally Israel.

Obama, who could gain a legacy boost from his diplomatic outreach to U.S. foe Iran, needs to convince as many of his fellow Democrats as possible to back the deal.

If a disapproval resolution passes Congress and survives a veto, Obama would be unable to waive most of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, which could cripple the nuclear pact.

(Additional reporting by Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry makes a statement to the media before a closed door briefing with House members on the recent Iran nuclear deal in Washington July 22, 2015. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

Iran Nuclear Agreement Delayed Again

Iran Nuclear Agreement Delayed Again

By Paul Richter, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

VIENNA — Last-minute snags have delayed the conclusion of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers for at least one more day, diplomats here reported Monday.

Despite widespread predictions over the weekend that a landmark agreement would be announced Monday, officials said the two sides remained divided on several issues. Some said the final round could wrap up early Tuesday, though that would break a self-imposed midnight Monday deadline for the negotiations.

Iran and the six powers — the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China — have spent almost two years seeking a deal that would lift sanctions on Iran if it accepts restrictions aimed at preventing it from obtaining a nuclear bomb. The current round of talks has lasted 17 days.

The issues that remain in dispute, officials said, include details of the relief that Iran would receive from international economic sanctions; the wording of a United Nations Security Council resolution intended to put the deal in place; and Iran’s demand that, along with removing other sanctions, the U.N. should lift an embargo on its trade in missiles and conventional arms.

Diplomats also need to wrap up the writing of the documents that specify the terms of the agreement, which have now swelled to at least 100 pages. They also must agree on how they will present the controversial agreement to their domestic audiences.

Iranian state television said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would speak live to his country late Monday or early Tuesday if a deal is concluded.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Iranian media Monday that the group would not strike another formal agreement to continue talks. But he said negotiations could continue without that step for “as long as necessary.”

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest expressed “confidence” that all sides would agree to keep an existing interim agreement in place for a few more days as the talks continue. That agreement was reached in November 2013 and set the ground rules for what Iran is allowed to do in its nuclear program during the course of negotiations.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry, asked about the progress of talks during a photo opportunity, didn’t respond.

European officials said over the weekend that they believed the talks were near their end and that all the political choices were clear. But the talks ran over into Monday anyway and now may drag on at least a few more days.

The talks have been formally extended twice before in this round.

(c)2015 Tribune Co. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: U.S. Emabassy in Vienna via Flickr

Iran Nuclear Talks Enter ‘Final Phase’

Iran Nuclear Talks Enter ‘Final Phase’

By Simon Sturdee and Daniel Rook, AFP

Vienna — Talks between world powers and Iran on a historic nuclear deal entered Sunday what France described as the “final phase,” but Washington warned major issues must still be overcome.

Hopes grew that a breakthrough might finally be in sight after a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the latest deadline on Monday for an agreement.

“I hope we are finally entering the final phase of these marathon negotiations. I believe it,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters as he returned to Vienna on the haggle’s 16th day.

The talks seek to nail down a deal curbing Iran’s nuclear activities to make it extremely difficult for Tehran — which denies any such goal — to develop the atomic bomb. In return Iran will be granted staggered relief from painful sanctions, although the six powers insist on the option of reimposing the restrictions if Tehran breaches the deal.

Despite the air of optimism in the Austrian capital, U.S. and Iranian officials dampened speculation that an agreement was imminent.

“We have never speculated about the timing of anything during these negotiations, and we’re certainly not going to start now — especially given the fact that major issues remain to be resolved in these talks,” a senior U.S. State Department official said.

Iranian diplomat Alireza Miryousefi, writing on Twitter, quoted a senior official from Tehran as saying a deal by Sunday night was “logistically impossible” as the agreement being drawn up spanned 100 pages.

Earlier, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been embroiled in talks with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna since June 27, was cautiously upbeat.

“I think we’re getting to some real decisions. So I will say, because we have a few tough things to do, I remain hopeful. Hopeful,” Kerry said, calling his latest meeting with Zarif “positive.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini who chairs the P5+1 group — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany — negotiating with Iran said on Twitter that these were the “decisive hours.”

And a diplomatic source said Saturday as a flurry of bilateral and multilateral meetings went deep into the night that “98 percent of the text is finished.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flew to join the talks in Vienna, his ministry said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, however, left the talks on Sunday but was expected to return the next morning.

‘Time To Decide’

Under the parameters of a framework deal reached in Lausanne in April, Iran is to slash the number of its centrifuges from more than 19,000 to just over 6,000 and sharply cut its stocks of enriched uranium.

Negotiators left the thorniest issues until last, including a mechanism for lifting interlocking EU, U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

A new hurdle was thrown up in recent days, with the Iranian delegation insisting a U.N. arms embargo be lifted once a deal is reached.

The talks have also stumbled on demands to give U.N. nuclear inspectors access to military sites, to probe suspicions Iran sought to develop nuclear weapons in the past.

A final agreement would be a diplomatic victory for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has made the talks a centerpiece of his foreign policy, and for his Iranian opposite Hassan Rouhani, a moderate seeking to end his country’s diplomatic isolation.

Both have faced opposition from hardliners at home, as well as from Iran’s arch-foe Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, although it has never confirmed it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the deal would allow Iran to make “many nuclear bombs and gives it hundreds of billions of dollars for its terrorism and conquest machine.”

Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states are also deeply suspicious of Shiite Iran, accusing it of fomenting unrest in Syria, Yemen, and other flashpoints.

Obama, a Democrat, has faced persistent opposition to his Iran policy from the U.S. Congress, controlled by Republicans, who in a 60-day review period may try to scupper the accord.

Iran has for years faced U.N., EU, and U.S. sanctions that have placed restrictions on the country’s oil and banking sectors, trade, and everyday life for the population of 78 million.

In Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the battle against the “arrogance” of the United States would continue even if there is a deal.

“This is an historic moment and there could be serious repercussions if negotiators fail to seize this opportunity to get a good deal,” Arms Control Association analyst Kelsey Davenport told AFP.

Photo: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry shake hands in Vienna, on November 20, 2014, with Baroness Catherine Ashton. (U.S. Embassy Vienna via Flickr)