Full Coverage: Nuclear deal with Iran

Amid celebration of the milestone nuclear deal and the departure from Iran of three freed Americans, the Obama administration offered a reminder Sunday of the gulf that remains in the countries’ relations.

President Obama on Sunday heralded the release of Americans held prisoner in Iran and the full implementation of a historic nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic, holding both up as victories for “smart� diplomacy and his pledge to deal directly with enemies of the United States.

World powers signed off Saturday on a historic deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear weapons-building, eases economic sanctions that have long crippled the Islamic Republic and rewrites diplomatic dynamics throughout the Middle East.

The U.S. and five other world powers sealed a sweeping accord with Iran on Tuesday to curb Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for easing of oil and economic sanctions, setting the stage for a bitter fight in Congress and a potential transformation of the Middle East.

Iran has complied with a landmark arms control agreement and is only days away from dismantling enough of its nuclear infrastructure so the United Nations can begin easing international economic sanctions, Secretary of State John F.

Critics of the Iran nuclear agreement will find much to not like in the deal announced Tuesday.

Major oil companies like Shell and car manufacturers like Peugeot Citroen have already opened talks with potential Iranian partners in anticipation of the lifting of sanctions envisioned as part of the historic nuclear accord announced in Vienna.

Congress voted to rid Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist.

In the flush of diplomatic victory, President Obama on Tuesday exulted that an international agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program “makes our country and the world safer and more secure.�

At the heart of the sweeping nuclear deal sealed here Tuesday lies a trade-off: The U.S. and its allies will get much stronger leverage to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb for more than a decade, but Iran’s conventional power in the Middle East will almost certainly grow in ways that could make it more aggressive.

The talks that led to the historic deal over Iran’s nuclear program have proceeded on and off for a dozen years, but only truly came to life after two key decisions in 2013, both made behind closed doors -- one at the White House, the other, a few months later, at Iran’s imposing presidential palace, Beit Rahbari, in central Tehran.

If President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran survives congressional scrutiny, his best hope for keeping it in one piece is a Democrat succeeding him in the White House – and even then the long-term prospects of the agreement paving the way for improved U.S.

As far as Israel is concerned, the nuclear accord with Iran is far from a done deal.

Many members of Congress remain deeply skeptical of the landmark deal announced Tuesday to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions but are unlikely to have the votes to stop it.

President Obama sought Tuesday to sell the deal reached overnight to limit Iran’s nuclear program, promising that it will limit the chance of war in the Middle East and cut off “every pathway� for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.

While U.S. and Iranian negotiators gave themselves more time Friday to reach a nuclear deal that could improve the countries’ ties, crowds of Iranians here chanted “Death to America,� just as they have for 36 years.

The nuclear weapon treaties that have helped preserve peace for nearly half a century have begun to fray.

As intense negotiations over Iran’s disputed nuclear program appeared to suddenly bog down, a senior Iranian official charged Thursday that the six powers seeking a deal are backtracking on commitments and bickering among themselves.

Obama administration officials who face the tough task of selling their nuclear deal with Iran to Americans are looking at a new challenge: how to avoid perceptions that the nearly-complete agreement will uncork a flood of arms to Tehran and militant allies such as Hezbollah.

Iran’s desire for a quick lifting of United Nations restrictions on its trade in missiles and other conventional arms has emerged as another potential sticking point in its nuclear negotiations with the United States and five other world powers.

The Obama administration began its nuclear negotiations with Iran by insisting that Tehran halt production of all nuclear fuel, dismantle its nuclear infrastructure and roll back its missile program.

The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Saturday he hopes to complete his controversial investigation of Iran’s past nuclear activities by December, potentially removing a key obstacle to completion of world powers’ sweeping nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

As diplomats rush to reach an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program, the U.S. military is stockpiling conventional bombs so powerful that strategists say they could cripple Tehran’s most heavily fortified nuclear complexes, including one deep underground.

With an international nuclear deal with Iran apparently near completion, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency said Friday it has made progress in its examination of Tehran’s past nuclear activity, but hasn’t fully resolved the issue.

Iran signaled Thursday that it may allow United Nations inspectors to question its experts about the country’s nuclear activities, potentially resolving a dispute that has blocked a nuclear deal now in the final stages of negotiation.

In an eleventh-hour appeal, Iran’s foreign minister used a video clip Friday to prod the six world powers he is negotiating with to abandon “coercive� tactics and strike a deal over his nation’s nuclear program.

Diplomats from six global powers and Iran gave themselves another week Tuesday to complete a comprehensive deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program as senior officials stepped up the pace of the difficult final negotiations.

As negotiators battle over the final terms of a nuclear agreement, Iran and six world powers have begun bickering over an important side issue: who gets the blame if the deal falls through.

As international negotiators gathered here Saturday for what is supposed to be a final round of nuclear diplomacy with Iran, the hope of achieving a deal hinges on a mystery: What does Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei really want?

Secretary of State John F.

Over the last 20 months, world powers seeking a nuclear deal with Iran have worked out tentative agreements to monitor and secure the country’s known nuclear facilities to prevent it from building a bomb.

“The fact that you are anti-Semitic, or racist, doesn’t preclude you from being interested in survival,� President Obama said last month in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic.

Secretary of State John F.

On the eve of talks to conclude a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration Thursday identified the Tehran government as one of the world’s worst abusers of human rights.

In 2012, President Obama made it plain in a letter to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that any attempt to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz would be met with American force.

A bipartisan bill for Congress to review any nuclear agreement with Iran faced new danger Thursday as Republican senators sought to force votes on controversial amendments that leaders had hoped to avoid.

Signaling a potential key compromise in negotiations with Iran, the White House said Monday that it might be willing to start providing sanctions relief as soon as Tehran begins putting in place new curbs on its nuclear program.

The headline for a recent Times editorial called critics of the Obama administration’s framework for a nuclear deal with Iran who raise questions not directly related to the nuclear issue itself “off-base.�

Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday laid out tough terms for negotiations on his country’s nuclear program, saying that all sanctions must be lifted at the start of any agreement and that international inspectors would not be permitted in military sites.

In the spring of his first year in office, President Obama began pushing an audacious goal — to use diplomacy to bring about what he called “a world without nuclear weapons.�

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought Friday to sell hard-liners on the merits of a preliminary deal that would eventually lift crippling economic sanctions in exchange for placing limits on his country’s controversial nuclear program.

The U.S. and five other world powers have negotiated with Iran almost nonstop for 18 months in an effort to subject that country’s nuclear program to international controls.

An outpouring of details from the Obama administration on the preliminary nuclear deal with Iran suggests the U.S. and five partner countries emerged from 18 month of talks with an agreement tilted very much in their favor.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday met with his nuclear negotiating team upon their return home and praised them for their work in hammering out the outline of a preliminary deal with six world powers.

With a path newly in sight to a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear threat, President Obama immediately moved Thursday to thwart interference from U.S. lawmakers lining up against the fragile accord.

Six world powers and Iran announced the outline of a preliminary deal Thursday that Western officials say will impose sweeping restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities for more than a decade.

President Obama said Thursday that the tentative agreement to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons program is “a good deal,� arguing that it is the best option for heading off another war in the Middle East or a nuclear arms race in the region.

The announcement of a tentative outline of a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers starts three months of bargaining that may be even more difficult than the diplomacy of the last 18 months.

Israeli leaders lashed out at Thursday’s announcement of a framework agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear development with demands that the foreign powers negotiating the deal further roll back Tehran’s programs and warnings of possible military strikes on Iran if they don’t.

At first glance, the outline of a nuclear agreement unveiled Thursday looks like a good deal for the United States and its allies.

If nothing succeeds like failure, then the neoconservatives who championed democracy promotion and regime change against Saddam Hussein are very successful indeed.

When negotiators at the Iran nuclear talks in this gracious Alpine city wake up in the plush surroundings of the neo-baroque Beau Rivage Palace Hotel, they can gaze from their balconies at the inspiring sweep of Lake Geneva.

The battle for dominance in the Middle East draws on ancient enmity between the Shiite and Sunni branches of Islam, but what drives it is a thoroughly modern struggle for power between Iran and the Arab monarchies led by Saudi Arabia.