iran talks

The Associated Press reports that world powers will announce a formal deal with Iran in Vienna on Monday. Though there are still minor details to be finalized, the two diplomats who spoke to the AP confirmed that a deal will be reached, though they “cautioned that final details of the pact were still being worked out and a formal agreement still awaits a review from the capitals of the seven nations at the talks.”

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes–who lacks any prior qualifications for the post–has explained to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Monday that the administration believes that a bad Iran deal is worth doing because political reform inside the Iranian regime is more likely with the deal than without. Or, to use Rhodes’s own words: “We believe that the kiss of the nuke deal will turn the Iranian frog into a handsome prince.”

Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei remains cancer-stricken, and his fragile health has made diplomats concerned about implementation issues should world powers and Iran strike a nuclear deal in the coming weeks.

The Speaker of Iran’s Majles [parliament] reiterated on Monday that Tehran continues its “unwavering” support of the Assad regime in Syria.

On Wednesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) raised eyebrows when he took to blaming some of his Republican colleagues for the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group. In doing so, he remained almost completely indifferent to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s rapid expansion throughout the region.

Iran will never allow Western powers or the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Tehran’s military sites as part of a final agreement with the P5+1 world powers, Iran’s Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said Friday in an address to Tehran University students.

Breitbart News can now reveal what is believed to be the Twitter page of Sahar Nowrouzzadeh, whom Breitbart News recently uncovered as a former staffer for the pro-Tehran National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a group that has lobbied fiercely against any new sanctions against Iran and in favor of a nuclear deal with the terror regime.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a powerful address Wednesday at the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Day at Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem.

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), an alleged pro-regime lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., has released an action alert telling its followers, “You Have 24 Hours to Stop Bibi.”

Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Thursday that he has neither endorsed nor rejected the basic framework for an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, which had been reported as agreed upon by both the P5+1 world powers and the Iranian regime.

Rand Paul may be “closest to Obama in his view on foreign policy,” as Dr. Charles Krauthammer put it on Tuesday, but he is facing stiff competition from Jeb Bush in that category.The former Florida governor praised Obama’s initial negotiating efforts with Iran on Tuesday, telling an audience in Denver that “we need to give him credit” for “bringing other people along and making it tougher.” The puzzling statement suggests the influence of James A. Baker III on the Bush campaign.

Israel Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s promise to have Israel’s back is meaningless if he allows Iran to procure a nuclear weapon.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who is a candidate to succeed retiring Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) as Senate Minority Leader, has reiterated his support for a bipartisan proposal to require President Barack Obama to submit to Congress any nuclear deal with Iran. Because President Barack Obama has promised to veto the legislation–known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act–Schumer’s position is seen as a rare moment of dissent. However, there may be less here than meets the eye.

President Barack Obama has granted an interview to National Public Radio in an attempt to sell the Iran “framework” to a skeptical public. In the process, he compares the agreement to a real-estate deal–a poor analogy for a man who called his own last property purchase deal “boneheaded” after involving indicted (now convicted) bag Chicago man Tony Rezko. Obama also provided at least five big reasons that Congress–whose opposition is growing–should reject the Iran deal.

For days, lefties like Chris Matthews of MSNBC and Jonathan Chait of the New Republic have been fuming that conservative critics of the Iran “framework” have referred to it as the sequel to the Munich agreement of 1938—the deal that defined “appeasement.” Yet President Barack Obama proved his critics correct on Monday when he rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that Iran be required to accept Israel’s right to exist as a condition of a final deal.

The French delegation in Switzerland felt the outline for a nuclear deal with Iran was “not solid enough,” and wanted to improve upon the deal before signing off on the accord, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe 1 radio on Friday.

In the wake of the Iran “framework” agreement Thursday, President Barack Obama celebrated–but the Iranian regime pushed for more concessions, disputing the White House’s “fact sheet” on the deal and insisting the parties had agreed to end sanctions immediately. Iran’s reaction was a clear sign that between now and the end of June, an already-bad deal is going to get worse as the Iranians see just how much Obama wants an agreement, and use that to make new demands.

As talks over a nuclear deal with Iran continued past self-imposed deadlines, Israel’s intelligence minister has warned that the military option is on the table–and noted that Israel does not need U.S. cooperation to carry out a pre-emptive strike.

Once, Robert Malley was too radical for the Obama campaign, or for the White House. The Middle East scholar, widely seen as anti-Israel, reportedly met with the terrorist group Hamas and encouraged the United States to do the same. Then, in February, President Barack Obama appointed Malley as a senior director at the National Security Council. Today, Malley is advising Secretary of State John Kerry in Lausanne, Switzerland as he negotiates with Iran over a nuclear deal.

Once again, the Iran deal confirmed by diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland has failed to materialize. And the only thing more pathetic than the repeated collapse of the talks is the spectacle of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry staying on, even after diplomats from China, Russia, France and Germany have packed their bags and gone home. He is simply unwilling to admit failure. But the Iranian regime is happy to entertain his illusions, and so their delegation has stayed behind, too.

Diplomats meeting Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland to hammer out the framework agreement for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program missed their deadline of March 31, and resolved to continue their negotiations for an additional day, expecting to complete an agreement on April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool’s Day.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed that the March 31 deadline for the nuclear talks with Iran could extend into April.

Negotiations toward a nuclear deal between Iran and the P+5 nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) will continue through June, according to reports from Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday. The announcement was made to satisfy the self-imposed deadline of March 31 for a provisional agreement, with “technical” details to be agreed by July 1. However, major differences appear to have been redefined as “technical” to keep talks going.

Iran is refusing to commit to a written nuclear deal ahead of the March 31 deadline that American officials had touted for a general framework to be signed, the New York Times reports.

The left-wing New York Times opined on Tuesday that President Obama will have a much tougher time selling the case for a nuclear deal with Iran to the American people following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s powerful speech to a joint session of Congress. In his speech, the Israeli leader warned about the grave threat to the world posed by a nuclear-armed Iranian regime.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi insisted on a diplomatic trip to Tehran that the Iranian regime must secure a nuclear deal with world powers in order to open up the country for economic development, Reuters reports.

Secretary of State John Kerry held a surprise meeting Sunday with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, in Munich–the city made infamous for “appeasement” after the western powers granted Hitler part of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that he intended to resist the deal that Kerry and Zarif were striking.

There are at least five ways in which Iran has explicitly violated the interim agreement–one hat has been extended twice but has failed to produce anything but more time for Iran to advance to a nuclear weapon.

Former Obama adviser Dennis Ross, who left the White House in 2011 amidst rumors of clashes with Valerie Jarrett, has co-written a strident op-ed in Politico urging President Barack Obama to take a tougher stance with Iran.

On the one-year anniversary of the start of talks with Iran, and as President Barack Obama prepares to give his State of the Union address, Russia has signed a military deal with Iran. The agreement covers “includes expanded counter-terrorism cooperation, exchanges of military personnel for training purposes and an understanding for each country’s navy to more frequently use the other’s ports,” the AP reports.