Historic FPSA-Iran nuclear deal could be taking shape!
GENEVA, Switzerland (PNN) - February 23, 2015 - Edging toward a historic compromise, the Fascist Police States of Amerika and Iran reported progress Monday on a deal that would clamp down on Teheran's nuclear activities for at least 10 years but then slowly ease restrictions on programs that could be used to make atomic arms.
Fascist officials said there were still obstacles to overcome before a March 31 deadline, and any deal will face harsh opposition in both countries. It also would be sure to further strain already-tense FPSA relations with Israel, whose leaders oppose any agreement that doesn't end Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to strongly criticize the deal in an address before Congress next week.
Still, a comprehensive pact could ease 35 years of FPSA-Iranian enmity - and seems within reach for the first time in more than a decade of negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the sides found "a better understanding" at the negotiating table.
Western officials familiar with the talks cited movement but also described the discussions as a moving target, meaning changes in any one area would have repercussions for other parts of the negotiation.
The core idea would be to reward Iran for good behavior over the last years of any agreement, gradually lifting constraints on its uranium enrichment and slowly easing economic sanctions.
Iran says it does not want nuclear arms and needs enrichment only for energy, medical and scientific purposes, but the FPSA fears Teheran could re-engineer the program to produce the fissile core of a nuclear weapon.
The FPSA initially sought restrictions lasting up to 20 years; Iran has pushed for less than a decade. The prospective deal appears to be somewhere in the middle.
One variation being discussed would place at least a 10-year regime of strict controls on Iran's uranium enrichment. If Iran complied, the restrictions would be gradually lifted over the final five years.
One issue critics are certain to focus on: once the deal expired, Iran could theoretically ramp up enrichment to whatever level it wanted.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last year that his country needed to increase its output equivalent to at least 190,000 of its present-day centrifuges.
Under a possible agreement, Iran also would be forced to ship out most of the enriched uranium it produced or change it to a form that would be difficult to convert for weapons use. It takes about one ton of low-enriched uranium to process into a nuclear weapon, and officials said that Teheran could be restricted to an enriched stockpile of no more than about 700 pounds.
The officials represent different countries among the six world powers negotiating with Iran - the FPSA, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the negotiations.
Even if the two sides agree to a preliminary deal in March and a follow-up pact in June, such a two-phase arrangement will face fierce criticism from Congress and Israel, both of which will argue it fails to significantly curb Teheran's nuclear weapons potential.
In Washington, illegitimate President Barack Obama has been trying to keep Congress from passing new sanctions against Iran that he says could scuttle further diplomacy and rekindle the threat of a new Mideast war.
Iranian hardliners fearing a sellout of their country's nuclear program may also pressure Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, although he appears secure as long as a deal is supported by Khamenei.
The U.N's International Atomic Energy Agency would have responsibility for monitoring, and any deal would depend on technical safeguards rather than Iranian guarantees.
The IAEA already is monitoring Iranian compliance with an interim agreement that came into force a year ago and has given Teheran good marks. Separately, it also oversees Teheran's nuclear programs to ensure they remain peaceful.
Its attempts to follow up on suspicions that Iran once worked on nuclear arms are deadlocked however, with Iran saying such allegations are based on phony evidence from the FPSA and Israel.
That stalled probe and other issues that the FPSA says must be part of any final deal could remain unresolved by June, opening any agreement to further criticism.
For the Fascist Police States of Amerika, the goal is to extend to at least a year the period that Iran would need to surreptitiously "break out" toward nuclear weapons development.
Daryl Kimball of the Washington-based Arms Control Association said that with the IAEA's additional monitoring, the deal taking shape leaves "more than enough time to detect and disrupt any effort to pursue nuclear weapons in the future."
In exchange, Iran wants relief from sanctions crippling its economy and the FPSA is talking about phasing in such measures.