Discussing negotiations with Iran, President Obama talks on a Saturday conference call with U.S. negotiators in Geneva, together with Deputy National Security Advisers Tony Blinken and Ben Rhodes in the Oval Office.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at 10:15 ET on an Iran
nuclear deal that has reportedly been reached in Switzerland:
The French and Iranian foreign ministers said that a deal between six world powers and Iran has been struck that calls on Tehran to limit its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. [...]
The goal had been to hammer out an agreement to freeze Iran's nuclear program for six months, while offering the Iranians limited relief from crippling economic sanctions. If the interim deal holds, the parties will negotiate final-stage agreements to ensure Iran does not build nuclear weapons.
The deal came after the personal intervention by Secretary of State John Kerry and other foreign ministers whose presence had raised hopes for a breakthrough.
Republicans will undoubtedly object to the deal, given that it's an obvious ploy by the president to distract attention from his desire to see millions of Americans get health care insurance.
Watch the president's remarks here.
Well, that didn't take long:
Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care
— @JohnCornyn
Disgusting.
••• •••
From Yochi Dreazen at Foreign Policy [Meteor Blades]:
Lady Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, has spent much of the week locked in painstaking negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. An unassuming former member of the British House of Lords, Ashton got her job four years ago because of a byzantine political dispute involving former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Here in Geneva, she's been on center stage. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov swept into the Intercontinental Hotel Friday night and had a brief meeting with Zarif, making him the first senior official from the so-called P5+1 countries to talk to the Iranian foreign minister in two days. Wendy Sherman, the chief American negotiator, didn't meet with Zarif Thursday or Friday, and it wasn't clear when she would next sit down with him. That's left the talks almost solely in Ashton's hands, and it seems increasingly likely that she will succeed in cobbling together a deal.
"Ashton has pleasantly surprised," said Charles Kupchan, a Europe expert at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior official on the National Security Council. "She has turned out to be a reasonably effective behind-the-scenes negotiator."
7:27 PM PT (Meteor Blades): The deal will freeze Iran's nuclear program for six months to give time to come up with a comprehensive plan. The deal:
• Iran will not enrich uranium above 5 percent. It has been enriching to 20 percent, the use of which would make it easier to enrich to weapons grade. The existing stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium will be diluted.
• No more work on the heavy-water reactor at Arak. When operational, that reactor could make enough plutonium for one or two bombs a year.
• No more installation of enrichment centrifuges. About 8,000 are operating now.
• U.S. relief on economic sanctions on Iran to the tune of $6 billion to $7 billion.
7:36 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Obama: "Diplomacy opened up a new path for a world that is more secure. Just a first step, but it achieves a great deal."
7:41 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Obama: World united in keeping Iran from building a bomb. Israel and other allies in the MIddle East are right to be skeptical about Iran on nuclear program.
7:42 PM PT (Meteor Blades): Obama: Difficult to come up with comprehensive agreement.
7:43 PM PT: From the White House: Fact Sheet: First Step Understandings Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Nuclear Program
7:53 PM PT: President Obama's complete remarks as prepared for delivery.