Iran Nuclear Negotiations Hit Major Stumbling Blocks

With a deadline looming at midnight Tuesday for a preliminary deal addressing Iran’s renegade nuclear program, foreign ministers from the US, UK, France, Russia, China, Germany and the Islamic Republic were in marathon talks Monday evening in Lausanne, Switzerland. Major issues have yet to be resolved in the talks, even as Israeli officials are warning that the deal being discussed is “far worse” than they had imagined it was even a few days ago. But hope came from an unexpected quarter as Iranian negotiators appeared to have withdrawn their agreement to a key demand by the P5+1 powers to export their stockpile of highly enriched uranium, potentially sending the negotiations back to square one. Meanwhile, there is also a political battle over the negotiations taking place between the White House and the Congress in Washington, with Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell leading a delegation to Jerusalem over the weekend to hear from Israeli leaders. Read More