Nuclear deal with Iran "on the verge of being done"
VIENNA -- A deal with Iran is on the "verge of being done" according to diplomats. Negotiators expect to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran within hours here in Vienna, where the talks are still underway. The final text of a 100-page agreement is still being hammered out by diplomats.
It appears that they have found a way to compromise on how to eventually phase out a U.N. arms embargo that prevents Iran from importing and exporting conventional weapons, including missiles. The emerging agreement would not immediately pull back the ban but would instead phase it out over time. The duration is still up for debate, but diplomats indicated it would be less than 10 years and perhaps begin as soon as six years after Iran follows through on the necessary steps to freeze its nuclear program.
Details -- including access to suspected nuclear sites including military facilities -- are still being decided. The bones of a deal remain the same as the outline hammered out in April in Switzerland. It is unclear what the restrictions on Iran's nuclear research will be in the years after the first decade-long freeze.
The exact phasing of a sanctions rollout has also been a sticking point. The details of that pull-back will coincide with whether Iran follows through on what it says it will do.
The number of centrifuges still remains the same as in the April agreement. That means Iran will still reduce its number of installed centrifuges by two-thirds, a reduction from 19,000 down to 6,104.