An agreement would be the most important milestone in decades towards alleviating hostility between the USA and Iran, which have been enemies since Iranian revolutionaries captured 52 hostages in the USA embassy in Tehran in 1979 at the start of the Iranian Revolution.
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Other steps are drastically reducing the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium and reconverting its heavy water reactor in the city of Arak so it produces less weapons-usable plutonium.
The United States and Iran cut their ties after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and they now find themselves on opposing sides in several Middle Eastern hot spots, including the Palestinian Territories and Syria.
“Over the past few days, we have in fact made genuine progress”.
Foreign ministers and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (fourth right) meet at a hotel in Vienna, Austria July 6, 2015.
One senior USA official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the USA defence of Iranian compliance was “weird” and did not come naturally. It’s holding Americans hostages. “And it’s time for the United States to be engaging and to embrace a new reality”, he concluded.
But on Monday an Iranian official suggested that his delegation had never really considered Tuesday as a deadline.
“Such are the perils of dealing with the enemy”, he said, adding that “the U.S.is not defending Iran, but the deal with Iran”. That package was extended three times, most recently on June 30.
This is about finding an agreement that makes it impossible for Iran to get nuclear weapons and that would be a contribution to making the entire Middle East more secure.
Olli Heinonen of Harvard University, ex- deputy head of the IAEA, echoed Albright’s caution.
“I’m deeply concerned that this administration is simply trying to get a deal at any price….”
1987 – Iranian officials establish contact with an illicit nuclear procurement network run by Adbul Qadeer Khan, a Pakistani nuclear engineer.
Marathon Iran nuclear talks appeared to be stumbling Monday as foreign ministers grappled to resolve the last hurdles blocking a deal, amid warnings that years of negotiations may fail at the 11th hour.
But the six powers had yet to agree on a United Nations Security Council resolution that would lift UN sanctions and establish a means of re-imposing them in case of Iranian non-compliance with a future agreement.
Global Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Yukiya Amano, told reporters that “with the cooperation from Iran”, he expects a complete report from his team within six months on “the possible military dimensions” (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program.
Tehran has long denied seeking to develop nuclear arms, and in return for curtailing its atomic industry is demanding an end to biting economic sanctions.
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2009 – US President Barack Obama takes office and, in his first week in the White House, tells Iran’s leaders he would extend a hand if they would “unclench their fist” and persuade the West they were not trying to build a nuclear bomb. “This is something that the world will analyze”, he said, adding that “none of us … intend to do something that can’t pass scrutiny”.
