No surprise: Iran talks to extend past June 30 deadline
What's the point of creating a deadline for the conclusion of negotiations if it never means anything? The March 31 deadline for concluding a framework agreement slipped several days before a deal was announced. And now, to no one's surprise, the deadline to conclude a final agreement with Iran on its nuclear program will be missed as well.
We've said that these talks could go beyond June 30th for a few days if we need some additional time to conclude a strong comprehensive agreement," the official told CNN.
"Given the date and fact that we have more work still to do, the parties are planning to remain in Vienna past June 30th to keep negotiating. We are still very focused on concluding a comprehensive agreement in this negotiating round, though, and no one is talking about a long-term extension," the official said.
Sources have told CNN over the past couple of days that going past June 30th was very likely and have been downplaying expectations of reaching a final agreement by Tuesday.
Separately Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif told Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday that he would be returning to Iran for a very short visit, a senior State Department official told the pool traveling with Kerry.
It's going to take a few more days for Kerry to cave in to all of Iran's demands on sanctions, inspections, and technological upgrades. They will paper it over to make it look better, but the end result will be the same. Iran will get to do whatever it wishes with its nuclear program and will be able to do it in secret. Almost all sanctions will be lifted immediately, despite what the administration has been claiming about lifting them gradually over a number of years.
Republicans will oppose whatever is agreed to, but what about some key Democrats like Senators Menendez and Schumer? In order to get congressional approval, Obama will have to finesse these issues. Or, as with the framework deal, he might simply choose to lie about what's in the agreement.
Even if Congress votes the deal down, I doubt whether it will kill the agreement. The real approval for the deal will come at the United Nations Security Council. which is also where sanctions will probably be lifted on the day the SC approves it.