WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the end of March nears, there is still no deal to rollback Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions — what would be a framework for a full agreement that could be finalized by the end of June.
According to ABC News, negotiations intensified through the weekend in Switzerland between Iran and the six major world powers of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
Progress was reported but, as of Sunday morning, there was no deal.
“What does that tell me? That tells me that the President can’t even get a bad deal which is what we’re concerned about,” U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (D-W.Va.) said last week of the ongoing talks, with the March 31 deadline approaching.
Earlier this month, Capito was one of 47 Republican Senators to sign onto an open letter to Iran’s government.
The letter detailed the provisions in the U.S. Constitution dealing with international agreements and warned, if there’s a deal Congress does not approve, “The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.”
Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state, called the letter “unprecedented and fairly outrageous” in an interview with USA Today. She said the letter weakened the U.S. negotiating position.
“I don’t think the letter undermines at all what the President’s trying to do,” Capito said, arguing for a Congressional role in talks. “What the letter does is reinforce the feelings of the United States Senate that the people’s voice needs to be heard in terms of this negotiation that’s going on.”
The ultimate goal of the U.S. and the other countries involved in negotiations is to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
“I don’t trust the Iranian leaders to negotiate in good faith and I don’t know why he (President Barack Obama) would either,” Capito said.
Reports out of Switzerland this weekend indicated a “phased step-by-step approach” to scaling back Iran’s nuclear program while, at the same time, lifting sanctions was taking shape.
Iran has been demanding an immediate end to international sanctions.