Despite reports earlier on Tuesday that the Iran nuclear framework was more or less finalized and a press conference had been scheduled for later in the evening, negotiators are now saying the whole matter has been extended for another day, with talks moving into Wednesday.
Details are scant, but everyone agrees that there are certain, unspecified issues everyone prefers to work out before issuing the public statement on the framework. A key aspect is reportedly Iran wanting concrete sanctions relief for irreversible steps.
That they’re extending the talks a single day reflects how close such a deal must be, despite protestations from US officials that there are “several difficult issues” to be resolved.
Ultimately, the framework is expected to be quite broad, only 2-3 pages, and any matters not resolved would simply be left vague, and punted down the road for the talks on a final deal, which are very tentatively meant to end at the end of June, but will almost certainly continue beyond that date.
We're still all about Iran- but when will we be all about Saudi Arabia talking it up about their right to have nuclear weapons? I'm surprised Israel isn't already up in arms about another Muslim nation talking about procuring nukes.
Why is it that I have to read a Dutch newspaper every day to learn that the Chinese government has now warned that a failure to reach an agreement will be very bad? After all China is one of the six negotiating partners. Our media, including AW.com seem to believe that the negotiations are an exclusive US affair. The statement of the Chinese government should have been front page fare with its caption in big fat letters.
When I consider the foreign affairs of our governments after WW2 only one event sticks out as brilliant and stabilizing for the world namely Nixon's trip to Beijing (the formation of NATO was predictable and does not rise to brilliant or stabilizing). A decent agreement with Iran may be in that ballpark.
Perhaps the reason we're not hearing much about China's stance is because the sun rotates around the US.
This shows the weakness of both China & Mr Putin .They are far from a threat to the USA.