Negotiators Lock Down Timetable for Final Iran Nuclear Deal

February 20, 2014 | Edited by Lauren Mladenka and Geoff Wilson

Timetable set - “The first round of comprehensive Iran nuclear deal negotiations concluded here Thursday with agreement on all the issues that need to be addressed and a timetable of meetings over the next four months to try to do so,” Laura Rozen reports for Al-Monitor. A senior US official was quoted as saying that, “We are at the beginning of a very difficult, complex process. It’s going to be both a marathon and a sprint….We have a long distance to cover in a short period of time.”

--“We have had three very productive days during which we have identified all of the issues we need to address in reaching a comprehensive and final agreement,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton at a joint press conference with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. “There is a lot to do. It won’t be easy but we have made a good start.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/MeEjZP

Tweet - @NIACouncil: #Iran and World Powers Agree on Framework for Nuclear Talks by @StevenErlanger for @nytimes #Irantalksvienna #peace http://nyti.ms/1eXGjwy

The new negotiating rules - “As representatives from Iran and the group of world powers known as the P5+1 attempt to build on the interim nuclear agreement this week in Vienna, few are holding their breath for an overnight success,” writes Aaron David Miller in Foreign Policy. “But if we can't yet say what the Vienna talks will yield, we can at least spell out what the negotiators are up against.”

--“Anyone who thinks they can predict the outcome of these talks or even a rough directional arc for the months ahead, ought to lie down until the feeling passes. This isn't chapter 12 in the ongoing story of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. We're in terra incognita when it comes to the talks in Vienna and the U.S.-Iranian relationship,” Miller says. “Few outside of the negotiating room predicted how quickly the interim agreement would be reached, let alone that most of the tough negotiating would be done not in a P5+1 plenary, but in the back channel.” Read Miller’s negotiating rules here. http://atfp.co/1ctTMiX

Prisoner’s take - “With talks between Iran and six world powers on a permanent accord resuming this week, some voices in Congress and some supporters of Israel continue to warn against engagement with Iran and to press for even tougher sanctions. The Iran that I glimpsed under my blindfold, heard in the supportive whispers on my prison hallway and tasted in the sweet candies provided by my hall mates convinces me this stance is misguided,” writes Josh Fattal, an American who spent 781 days in an Iranian prison, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times

--“It is time to end the mutual hostility for good. A permanent accord that limits Iran's nuclear capabilities in exchange for a lifting of sanctions would make my relatives in Israel safer. It would make my family in the United States safer. And it would strengthen the hand of the brave Iranians I met in the dark corridors of Evin Prison in their continuing struggle for democracy.” http://lat.ms/1nQtzx5

Iran predictions - “Demanding that Iran be left with no enrichment, no centrifuges, no stockpile of enriched uranium, and no heavy water reactor at Arak is the surest way to a fifth ‘no’: that is, no deal,” says Graham Allison. “The outcome we must achieve is none of the above. Rather, it is to deny Iran an exercisable nuclear weapons option. That means ensuring that Iran cannot use whatever knowledge, industrial base, and ongoing enrichment activities remain after the agreement to break out to a bomb.” More perspectives on Iran from Harvard’s Belfer Center at Iran Matters. http://bit.ly/1eaJalG

Fire down below - “A radiation leak last Friday at the country’s only underground nuclear-waste storage site came just 10 days after an underground vehicle caught fire there,” Bob Brewin reports for Global Security Newswire. “The Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, located 26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, N.M., went into operation in 1999 and stores plutonium-contaminated waste in salt caverns 2,150 feet below the surface. The facility is estimated to have cost more than $1 billion to develop… WIPP currently stores 3.2 million cubic feet of plutonium-contaminated waste generated during the development and manufacture of nuclear weapons by the Defense Department.” Full story here. http://bit.ly/MDXkWs

Columbia ratifies IAEA amendment - “On 18 February 2014, Colombia deposited its instrument of ratification of the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) with the IAEA,” the IAEA reports. “The Director General congratulated Colombia and expressed his appreciation for its cooperation with the Agency on strengthening nuclear security at home and worldwide.” He added that “Colombia's action demonstrated its strong national commitment to improving nuclear security.” Read the full report here. http://bit.ly/1fjTD2P

Call for increased inspections - “A Washington think tank is pressing Senate appropriators to boost funds for heightened U.N. surveillance of Iran's disputed nuclear program,” reports Diane Barnes for Global Security Newswire. “Increasing U.S. funding for the International Atomic Energy Agency in fiscal 2015 would help the agency to ‘ensure full and robust international inspections in order to maintain pressure on Iran,’” according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Full piece here. http://bit.ly/1fjT7ll

Quick-hits:

--“National Missile Defense - More Isn’t Always Better” by Laura Grego for All Things Nuclear. http://bit.ly/1jLYnyC

--“Nuclear Site Project Official Fired After Airing Safety Concerns” in Global Security Newswire. http://bit.ly/Ne8Asv

Events:

--“A Preview of the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit.” Discussion with Graham Allison. Feb. 20 from 6:00-8:00 at George Washington University, Lindner Family Commons, Room 602, 1957 E St. NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1iR0oZY

--“Toward a World Without Nuclear Weapons Testing.” Discussion with Karipbek Kuyukov and Roman Vassilenko, Ambassador of Kazakhstan. Feb. 26 from 12:30-2:00, George Washington University, Funger Hall room 209, 2201 G Street NW. RSVP here. http://bit.ly/1f9ozEl