Obama, allies hail Iran nuclear deal as critics slam concessions

President Obama and other world leaders on Thursday hailed what they said was a breakthrough accord setting the stage for a historic agreement that will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, even though Iran will be allowed to enrich uranium under the agreement and the schedule for easing international sanctions remains to be negotiated.

After 12 years of deadlock over Iran’s disputed nuclear activities — and a sleepless marathon of negotiations in Switzerland over the past week — Iranian and Western diplomats said the final terms of a 15-year phased deal will be hammered out and signed by all sides this summer.

An ebullient Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s top negotiator, hailed the agreement reached in Lausanne as a “win-win” for both sides.

In Washington, Mr. Obama said that “if this framework leads to a comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer.”

Even as critics on Capitol Hill and Israel pointed out shortcomings and omissions in the deal, Mr. Obama told reporters in the White House Rose Garden that Iran agreed to dramatically limit the scope of its nuclear program and committed to “the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history.”

“It is a good deal, a deal that meets our core objectives,” the president said

If it leads to a final deal, he said, the framework negotiated by top diplomats from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran will “cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.”

Skeptics were out in force by Thursday night, and a fact sheet that the State Department circulated to reporters showed a clear gap between the president’s rhetoric and the terms of the agreement by Washington and its allies.

In a concession indicating that Western negotiators believe the Islamic republic ultimately will build a nuclear bomb, the fact sheet suggested that the agreement’s bottom line is simply to slow the speed at which Iranian scientists can pursue such a goal if they violate terms of the agreement.

The amount of time it would take Iran to “break out” with enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon is “currently assessed to be 2 to 3 months,” the State Department document said. If the deal is finalized, “that timeline will be extended to at least one year, for the duration of at least ten years.”

All sides agree that the nuclear agreement will not resolve a host of bilateral problems that have poisoned U.S.-Iranian relations for decades, including Iran’s support for insurgent proxies in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, its suspected support of terrorist groups and even Tehran’s refusal to release three Americans — a Christian pastor, a journalist and a former U.S. Marine — who are being held in Iranian prisons.

Fate of sanctions unclear

On a separate front, uncertainty loomed over the process by which Iran will achieve its top objective in the talks: an end to crushing international economic sanctions, including the global embargo on Iranian crude oil, that the Obama administration helped organize in recent years to force Tehran to the bargaining table.

The State Department fact sheet said only that sanctions relief will occur if and when Iran “verifiably abides by its commitments” under a final deal. No specific timeline was identified, leaving open the possibility that sanctions could be lifted rapidly or could continue for years after a final deal is signed.

The sanctions issue is believed to have been bitterly divisive as the nuclear talks continued past the negotiators’ self-imposed March 31 deadline and one that may cause Mr. Obama significant problems with Congress.