Diplomats meeting Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland to hammer out the framework agreement for a deal on Iran’s nuclear program missed their deadline of March 31, and resolved to continue their negotiations for an additional day, expecting to complete an agreement on April 1st, otherwise known as April Fool’s Day.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew back to Lausanne after leaving on Monday, according to the Washington Post, indicating that diplomats now expect a deal to be concluded after initial doubts.
Under the anticipated agreement, Iran will keep some 6,000 of its nuclear centrifuges, originally banned by UN Security Council resolutions, and will keep some of them at the previously secret fortified underground facility at Fordow. Iran is also expected to keep some of its stockpile of enriched uranium.
The U.S. and other P+5 nations (United Kingdom, France, China, Russia, and Germany) are thought to have caved on a number of demands previously said to be non-negotiable.
A summary of U.S. concessions was provided Tuesday by Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal, in an article entitled “The Capitulationist.”
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