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Obama faces final frontier to wrap up Iran nuclear deal
by Joseph Earnest November 11, 2014
Newscast Media TEHRAN—The Obama administration is facing its last best chance to reach a deal
on Iran's nuclear program—not just to meet an end-of-the-month
deadline for a deal, but also to seal one before skeptical Republicans
who will control Congress next year are able to scuttle it, AP reported.
Years
of negotiations to resolve differences between west and Iran on
Tehran’s civilian nuclear production entered the final stretch Sunday as
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister
Javad Zarif and European Union senior adviser Catherine Ashton in Oman's
capital. With no immediate agreement in sight, officials said the
discussions were expected to continue.
Iran, the US
and the European Union have started a second round of talks in the Omani
capital, Muscat, to find a solution to the outstanding issues over
Tehran's nuclear energy program ahead of a deadline for a breakthrough
deal.
Iran has described the Oman talks as very important and
decisive, saying that the volume of Tehran’s uranium enrichment and the
timetable for the removal of anti-Iran sanctions are top issues on the
agenda.The stakes are high as the Nov. 24 deadline approaches.
It
also would deliver a foreign policy triumph for the White House, which
is being hammered by prominent Republican senators over its handling of
the war in Syria and the growth of the ISIS militancy in Iraq.
Over
the past year, congressional Republicans have made little secret of
their skepticism of Obama's outreach to Tehran. They say it has
alienated Israel and kept the U.S. from maintaining a hard line on a
number of foreign policy fronts.
Iran has maintained that its nuclear activities are purely peaceful and necessary to fuel medical and energy demands.
Last
week, Kerry, a former Senate Foreign Relations committee chairman,
rejected suggestions that a GOP-controlled Congress would be able to
change course on negotiations with Iran. He also noted that any Senate
move would need overwhelming support to be approved. "As we have learned
in the last few years, the minority has enormous power to stop things
from happening,'' he said.
Iran has the right to
operate a civil nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said
Wednesday, as he met with his French counterpart ahead of a crucial
round of talks over Tehran’s nuclear activities.
"They have a right to a peaceful program" Mr. Kerry said, flanked by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Iran
has strongly condemned the European Union's latest move to impose fresh
sanctions on a number of Iranian institutions and companies despite the
ongoing negotiations between representatives of Iran, the US and the EU
in the Omani capital, Muscat.
Iranian officials appear guardedly
optimistic about reaching an agreement by the end of November, but
insist on a quick lifting of the sanctions.
"Sanctions have never
contributed to the resolution of this issue,'' Zarif told reporters as
he headed to Muscat. "They must be removed. They have not produced any
positive results.''
Tehran
wants the sanctions entirely lifted while Washington, under pressure
from the pro-Israeli lobby, insists that at least the UN-imposed
sanctions should remain in place. Add
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Source: Al Manar TV News
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