Iran-U.S. differences over nuclear deal widen

Oren Dorell | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption 5 sticking points of Iran's nuclear deal Here are five major issues at the center of Iran's nuclear deal.

Two weeks after world powers and Iran announced a framework agreement to curb Iran's nuclear program, widening gaps between the two sides are emerging.

As negotiators prepare to start working on a final agreement in Vienna next Wednesday, the United States and Iran are at odds on key issues that form the basis of the deal unveiled April 2 in Switzerland.

They include when economic sanctions on Iran will be lifted, the number of machines Iran can keep to process uranium and length of the final agreement.

The six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany — and Iran have set a deadline of June 30 for a comprehensive deal that would curb Iran's nuclear program and ensure it is for peaceful uses, as Iran claims. In return, sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy would be lifted.

That will not be an easy task, given the sizable differences that must be resolved.

"There is a difficult path ahead of us towards the final deal," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in the northern Iranian city of Rasht, Iran's Tasnim News Agency reported Thursday. But there seems to be an international "will" to conclude a deal, he said.

Tuesday, The U.S. Senate agreed on a bipartisan bill that would give it the final say on any deal, adding a further complication to the negotiations. The White House said President Obama would sign that bill, which would require a two-thirds vote to kill a final agreement.

During a press conference on Friday, President Obama said he thought that Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ben Cardin, D-Md., reached a "reasonable compromise."

The president said he had two concerns. One was to make sure congressional actions did not derail chances for the best deal possible, and that Secretary of State John Kerry would not be "hobbled" by lawmakers' actions. He said he believes the process will not be tripped up in this way, "so that checked off one box."

The second concern arose from suggestions that a president as a rule of thumb must get approval from Congress to negotiate political agreements.

"That is not the case," Obama said. "This is not a formal treaty being envisioned. And the President of the United States, whether Democrat or Republican, traditionally has been able to enter into political agreements that are binding with other countries without congressional approval."

The president said that if neither senator makes any additional provisions or amendments, he will sign it.

Many U.S. lawmakers are skeptical of negotiations with Iran because they don't trust it to abide by the terms of any agreement it signs. Likewise, Iranian politicians in Tehran accuse the U.S. Congress of trying to sabotage an agreement and say Iran's actions to satisfy a deal should be reversible if world powers fail to live up to their obligations.

Based on recent comments from U.S. and Iranian leaders, as well as fact sheets on the interim deal issued separately by the United States and Iran, glaring differences appear. The main ones:

•Sanctions: The fact sheet issued by Iran's parliament Wednesday said that when the comprehensive deal begins, "all the U.S. and (European Union) sanctions will be terminated, and Iran will start fulfilling" its obligations under the deal. The White House said sanctions would be suspended in phases as Iran meets the terms of the deal and its actions are verified by United Nations inspectors.

•Centrifuges: Iran's fact sheet said Iran should keep operating about 10,000 centrifuges used to process uranium fuel. The White House said the framework agreement calls for Iran to scale back to 5,060 operating centrifuges to make it more difficult to produce fuel for a nuclear bomb.

•Fordow: Iran's fact sheet said a bunkered facility under a mountain in Fordow would continue uranium enrichment and research and development activities to prepare for more advanced machines in five years. The White House said Fordow would be converted to R&D that does not involve uranium enrichment.

•Inspections: The White House said U.N. inspectors would have access to "all of Iran's nuclear facilities," including undeclared sites. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei flatly rejected inspections of military sites.

•Duration: Iran's parliament called for a five-year limit on the nation's nuclear program. The White House said some aspects of the deal would last 10 years, and others would last 25 years.

Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a skeptic of an emerging deal, expressed worries that Obama will make new concessions to Iran to reach an agreement. "President Obama wants a deal and will back 'creative negotiations,' in his own words, to bridge remaining gaps on these issues," he said.

Kelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, which supports a deal with Iran, said the Iranian fact sheet was produced by a hard-line opposition in response to the planned U.S. Senate review of the agreement and does not reflect the position of Iran's negotiators or Khamenei.

"These are tough decisions for the negotiators to make," she said, "because each side needs to be sure they can sell a final agreement back home."