Nuclear negotiators lean in as clock ticks on Iran deal

The Iranian negotiating team “appears to be focused on reaching a comprehensive deal,” Suzanne DiMaggio, a US-Iran expert at the New America Foundation, told Al-Monitor Feb. 12. The key outstanding issue for Iran’s negotiators is sanctions relief. “Two major concerns are whether the Obama administration has the power to terminate the implementation of sanctions and the sequence and timing of the lifting of UN sanctions,” DiMaggio said. “Both sides have moved in their positions during the negotiation process,” DiMaggio said. “But it is not clear if the US can move enough on the sanctions issue for the Iranian side to feel they have a good enough deal to take to Khamenei.”