Negotiations with Iran over limiting its nuclear program appeared close to agreement Thursday, but the reported outlines of a possible deal contained concessions by international negotiators expected to make it politically unpalatable in Washington.
The Associated Press reported that the United States is considering letting Iran run several hundred centrifuges used to enrich uranium at Fordow, a heavily fortified underground site near the Shiite holy city of Qom that Iran kept secret from international inspectors until it disclosed the facility in 2009. In exchange, Iran would reduce the number of centrifuges it operates elsewhere and would use those at Fordow to enrich elements other than uranium.
The United States and its partners in the P5+1 group — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — had wanted the facility shut down.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and its negotiating partners at the talks which resumed Friday in Lausanne, Switzerland, are scaling back demands that Iran come clean on its past nuclear research, which included attempts to develop a nuclear weapon, to overcome Tehran’s refusal to do so.
Both moves could make any deal unable to achieve its main goal of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, according to experts, who say those and other concessions, particularly any walkback of demands that Iran come clean on past weapons work, will make verification impossible.
“It is going to require a very intrusive verification system, and it’s unclear whether that can be accomplished,” David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, who has been advising the Obama administration on the issue, told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Tuesday.
Any concession that weakens the ability to verify that Iran’s nuclear program is solely peaceful would make an agreement dead on arrival in Congress, which is already likely to vote to force Obama to submit the deal to lawmakers for approval.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, tweeted out a link to the AP report with the comment “Not a good deal.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set to vote April 14 on legislation that would require congressional approval of a deal and tie the relief from U.S. sanctions demanded by Iran to that process. Supporters expect it to pass soon after by a majority large enough to overcome Obama’s expected veto.
“If today’s news report from Lausanne is true, we are not inching closer to Iran’s negotiating position, but leaping toward it with both feet,” said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the panel’s ranking Democrat. “My fear is that we are no longer guided by the principle that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal,’ but instead we are negotiating ‘any deal for a deal’s sake.'”
In the House, 367 lawmakers — 77 more than a veto-proof majority — signed a March 20 letter to Obama saying that their willingness to lift U.S. sanctions depends on them being convinced that an agreement prevents Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
“Members of Congress have made it clear that Iran’s past bomb work must be disclosed if a deal is to have any credibility.” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif.
