Who negotiated what with Iran?

When you are negotiating an agreement or contract, it is not unusual in the early stages for either party to leak information to enhance their position. In addition, supporters on both sides may make statements or take action to support their cause. 

However, credible negotiators will fall silent during the final stages of forming an agreement. And most important before there is an announcement that an agreement has been reached the terms of the agreement are understood and supported by both parties. 

Compare the above process with what is happening between the U.S. and Iran. There isn’t even public agreement on whether there is actually an agreement or if core elements of an agreement; lifting of sanctions and verification have been agreed to. 

Just a week af­ter agree­ing on a frame­work for a nu­clear deal, Iran’s supreme leader and the Obama administration clashed over its core el­e­ments, rekin­dling doubts about whether Wash­ing­ton and Tehran can final­ize an ac­cord by a June 30 dead­line.

The supreme leader, Ay­a­tolah Ali Khamenei, in his first pub­lic com­ments on the diplomacy, said on Thurs­day the U.S. and its ne­go­ti­at­ing partners must lift all sanc­tions on his coun­try im­me­di­ately upon a fi­nal deal be­ing signed. The Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion has been de­mand­ing a phased repeal of the penal­ties, con­ditional on Iran’s con­tin­u­ing com­pli­ance.

The 75-year-old cleric also said Iran’s gov­ern­ment and secu­rity forces wouldn’t per­mit out­side in­spec­tions of the coun­try’s mil­i­tary sites, which are of­fi­cially non­nu­clear but where United Na­tions in­ves­tiga­tors sus­pect Tehran conducted tests re­lated to atomic weapons de­vel­op­ment. WSJ 3-10-15

So, is there any agreement? Is there agreement on sanctions? Is there agreement on verification?  Here is what the President said.  My bad, although you wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric, he announced the “framework” of an agreement which is to say not much has yet been accomplished. Now that’s something the Iranians may agree to. ☺️