President Barack Obama said extending nuclear talks aimed at a comprehensive agreement with Iran will depend on what emerges from the latest Vienna talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appearing Sunday on the same U.S. television broadcast, warned against making a “historic mistake” by reaching a bad deal with Tehran.
President Obama, who acknowledges the gaps between the Iranian and the P-5+1 negotiating positions are still significant, was asked if the negotiations will be extended beyond midnight Monday.
“You know, I think what we’re going to do is take a look at what emerges over the course of the weekend,” said Obama.
Obama said he is confident that an agreement to contain Iran’s nuclear program will gain support in the U.S. Congress.
“I’m confident that, if we reach a deal that is verifiable and assures that Iran doesn’t have breakout capacity [to develop nuclear weapons] that, not only can I persuade Congress, but I can persuade the American people that it’s the right thing to do,” said Obama.
Obama said the good news is that the interim nuclear agreement reached a year ago with Tehran is working by stopping Iran’s nuclear program from advancing. As for improved relations with Iran, Obama said Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and its attitude toward nations like Israel remain serious obstacles, but a nuclear agreement would, in his words, take a big piece of business off the table.
“[A deal would] begin a long process in which the relationship, not just between Iran and us, but the relationship between Iran and the rest of the world and the region begins to change. Now, Iran is not like North Korea, a country that is completely isolated and completely dysfunctional, so they have the opportunity to, I think, really thrive. I suspect President Rouhani would like to seize that opportunity but, in the end, he is going to have to deal with his politics at home, and he’s not the ultimate decider, the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] is,” said Obama.
Appearing on the same program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned against reaching a bad deal with Iran.
“A bad deal would enable Iran to remain with thousands of centrifuges which it could use to enrich uranium which is what you need for a nuclear bomb. It could do so in a very short time. I think the key principle is this: don’t dismantle sanctions before you dismantle Iran’s capacity to make a nuclear bomb, and as I understand it, the Iranians are nowhere near to accepting that and if, for any reason, the United States and the other powers agree to leave Iran with that capacity to break out I think that would be a historic mistake, not only because it endangers my country, Israel, that Iran’s ruler, the Ayatollah Khamenei vows to annihilate, but also because I think it would endanger the entire Middle East and the world,” said Netanyahu.
Netanyahu said Iran has used the interim agreement to develop other aspects of its nuclear program, noting the U.N. atomic agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said Tehran refuses to divulge elements of its secret military nuclear program. He urges international negotiators to maintain and even tighten the sanctions until Iran makes the concessions necessary to keep it from developing nuclear weapons.
Middle East analyst Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco said an extension of the nuclear talks appears inevitable.
“This is primarily because both sides have put an enormous amount of work since the interim agreement last year and it would be bad news for all concerned if they just collapsed,” said Zunes.
However, he acknowledged some distance separates the negotiating positions of each side.
“Iran wants sanctions lifted immediately, while Western states want to stagger their removal over a period of time to ensure the Iranian government abides by its commitments. Other issues involve the scope of uranium enrichment and just how much can be developed, at what concentration. So, these are still fundamental issues for both sides. It’s still going to be a tough row to hoe by both sides,” said Zunes.
Zunes said the international negotiators, including Iranian allies Russia and China, have remained surprisingly unified in their opposition to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. That, he says, makes Tehran realize the opposition to its program is not just ideological, but international.
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