CBS News foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan in Vienna cited nuclear negotiators in Vienna as saying that progress is slow. But there has been movement on two of the thorniest issues. The first is sanctions. For the past few years, billions of dollars of Iran’s assets have been frozen. And under this deal, those would be unlocked. Further sanctions would then be lifted over time, as Iran takes steps to freeze its nuclear program.
And there’s another promising sign, according to the CBS News. Weapons inspectors say that Iran has agreed to cooperate with an investigation into charges that they secretly tried to develop weapons in the past. But Tehran is still stopping short of allowing inspectors into all suspected nuclear sites, including military installations.
So, American diplomats tell us that this deal could still fail, particularly if Iran doesn’t agree to restrict nuclear development over the next 10 years or more. So, Secretary of State John Kerry may need more than these next two days to hammer all of this out. And that could be a problem, because Congress wants a deal in their hands by July 9.
In an interview with Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, CBS Face the Nation Sunday talk asked what worries you the most about where things are right now in this negotiation?
Senator Corker replied: “We have gone from dismantling their program to managing proliferation. That’s the biggest concern. That’s already done. But right now, we have the issues of, are we going to have anytime, anywhere inspections? Will we know what their past military dimensions were? It’s very important. Every person who has come in to testify has talked about the importance of that. Will the IAEA ever be required to declare that Iran over time has a civil program, and not a military program?”
Senator Corker added: “There are numbers of issues. It’s been going on a negative trend for some time. And back to what your correspondent just mentioned, it’s not Congress that’s pushing to have all the documents here by July the 9th. It’s these six major countries, plus Iran, that really, on behalf of the American people, they want Congress only to have 30 days to review this deal, instead of 60.
“That has been going on now, and seriously, for almost two years. And it’s amazing to me that, as we come to the end of this deal, the biggest issue of concern to these countries right now is that Congress would only have 30 days, not 60 days, to review the deal.
“So, I did talk to Secretary Kerry yesterday. I urged him to please take their time, try to get — make sure these last remaining red lines that haven’t been crossed — they have crossed so many — do not get crossed, and, qualitatively, they don’t make it worse than where it already is.”
Senator Corkers’ reaction to a another question regarding Kerry’s response to the conversation he had with Corker regarding the talks was: “Well, obviously, they’re very anxious. I think they look at this as a legacy issue. I have had several conversations with him and meetings to say, look, you create just as much of a legacy walking away from a bad deal as you do headlong rushing into bad deal.
“I know they want to consummate this. This has been going on — actually, the original discussions began back in 2003. I would just hope again that they would take their time and finish this in the best way that they can, even though we have already gone down a bad track.
“One of the things about this, is Iran has done an excellent job of getting these countries to focus on the IR-1 centrifuges that they have. They’re almost antiques. And what we’re going to end up is with a — the deal that we know about. There’s some other things they’re working out right now.
“But you are going to have basically a 10-year pause, a 10-year pause in enrichment, but what you’re going to have during that time is them continuing their ballistic missile development, which is already very sophisticated. They’re going to be able to continue their research and development. As was mentioned, they’re going to have their sanctions relief.
“So, you’re going to have a country whose economy is growing rapidly that’s going to have all kinds of — over $100 billion of money to help create further terrorism in the region. And so they’re going to be growing. They’re going to be getting more established.
“And then, after 10 years, there’s something called the Iranian nuclear development program that’s been agreed to. And at that point, they’re basically going to be able to industrialize their program.
And, by the way, this is a program that has no practical needs. This was the baseline that concerned so many people. Why would they have 19,000 centrifuges? They have no practical needs for that. So, look, there are lot of concerns.”
CBS correspondent asked “are these concerns red lines for you, Senator, or are these just things you would like them to button up in a deal here?”
Senator CORKER replied: “Well, these have been their stated red lines.
The red lines that I’m talking about have been President Obama’s red lines, John Kerry’s red lines, the other countries’ red lines. And yet those have all been crossed. The remaining red lines are the anywhere, anytime inspections. Now, they’re obviously making sure that we have full access to scientists and they declare what their past military dimensions were.
Again, if you don’t know what their capabilities are, there’s almost no way to really gauge where they are. The IAEA certainly has raised this issue numbers of times. So those are two remaining red lines that hopefully will not be crossed. That’s certainly what we talked about yesterday on the phone.
And then again, to set this up, we’re basically at a time frame, and after 10 years, in essence, Iran is off and running again, and never have a situation — and having a situation where the IAEA can declare that this is a civil program, not a military program, they have no military dimensions. To me, those are things that hopefully will not be crossed and haven’t been crossed yet as they come to the close.
But, again, they’re rushing. They’re rushing so that we don’t have the ability, we only have 30 days to look at this, instead of 60, which in itself should send a signal to Americans. What’s that about?
CBS again asked “do you think Iran is capable at all of complying with the deal? What is your baseline feeling about Iran?”
Senator Corker replied:  “One of the important elements of the Iran nuclear Review Act that we passed through Congress, I think you know, the president, unfortunately, had the ability to unilaterally put this in place by going straight to the U.N. Security Council.
“He was given sanctions waivers through a national security waiver process. And so he could go directly to the U.N. Security Council. One of the important elements of what we were able to pass in Congress to take back some of that power, is the fact that after — if a deal is reached, then the president has to certify every six months that Iran is in compliance.
“Look, I think no one trusts Iran. I will say, on the other hand, the type of agreement that has been reached certainly is one that is more to their benefit than it is the rest of the world that does not want to see them proliferate. So we will see. They’re not in agreement right now.”