The Obama administration is saying that there’s not really a discrepancy with Iran over when sanctions are lifted, asserting first that sanctions would be rolled back upon completion of the deal terms and now saying that the timing of sanctions still needs to be negotiated.
A senior administration official on Thursday, after the deal was announced in Switzerland:
“The main principle is that we’ll be matching our sanctions with the completion of all of Iran’s major nuclear steps.  So, in other words, like the Secretary said, they can do it as fast as they want, and it’s in fact in our interests if they do it as fast as they can and get their breakout timeline extended as quickly as possible.”
But after the White House and State Department released a fact sheet on the deal, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was firing off a series of tweets:
“The solutions are good for all, as they stand. There is no need to spin using ‘fact sheets’ so early on.”
“Iran/5+1 Statement: ‘US will cease the application of ALL nuclear-related secondary economic and financial sanctions.’ Is this gradual?”
“Iran/P5+1 Statement: ‘The EU will TERMINATE the implementation of ALL nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions’. How about this?”
Iran, after all, had demanded — in weeks of public statements via its nuclear negotiators, parliament and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — no less than the lifting of all sanctions the moment the deal, which is due at the end of June, went into effect.
So what exactly was negotiated, then, when Zarif stepped out victoriously to announce Iran had what it wanted from marathon negotiations?
The White House trotted out Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz at today’s press briefing to explain the nuts and bolts of the nuclear framework. On Sunday, Moniz told CBS “the sanctions relief really kicks in only when they have complied with the core nuclear restrictions.
“And that’s what gets us to this two-month to one-year breakout time. So that’s when the sanctions relief will really kick in,” Moniz added.
Today press secretary Josh Earnest was peppered with questions about the sanctions discrepancy, replying:
“This issue that you have highlighted is one of those that still needs to be negotiated; that there are still details about the phase-out, if you will, of the sanctions that have not yet been agreed to.
And it is the strong view of the administration that it would not be wise and it would not be in the interests of the international community to simply take away sanctions, take away all of the sanctions on day one. It is our view that based on Iran’s history, that it would be most conducive to the success of the agreement for Iran to continue to have an incentive for complying with the agreement. And that is why we believe that this sort of phased approach is the best one. And it certainly is one that we will insist upon.
There are many of those who are sitting around the negotiating table — on our side of the negotiating table — who share that view. And that’s what we will insist upon. The reason that you’re hearing a slightly different message out of Iran is that this is — the details of this arrangement have not yet been agreed to.
This has been the negotiating position of the Iranians for some time. So I don’t think there’s anybody that’s particularly surprised about the fact that they continue to hold the negotiating position that they’ve had for some time.
…I don’t want to leave anybody with the impression that I’m suggesting, again, that the Iranian regime is somehow lying about this aspect of the negotiations. I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is that it is clear what their negotiating position is.”
A reporter noted “that is different than what you guys have said before, in that before, you said we’re not going to relieve sanctions until they take concrete steps, now what you’re saying is we would — we would start relieving sanctions as long as we’ve got an agreement on,” to which Earnest interjected, “No, no, no, no. No, no, no.”
“What I’m saying is, I’m talking — I’m talking about in the context of the talks, right? That as you sit down at the negotiating table, item 1 on the agenda at the negotiating table was not and could not be sanctions relief because sanctions relief would only be offered in exchange for significant commitments from Iran about curtailing their nuclear program. So the focus of the negotiations for more than a year now has been on what steps Iran is going to take, what commitments is Iran going to make to shut down every pathway they have to a nuclear weapon, right?
But that’s where we have to — we have to work all that out first and then we can get to the question of, well then once you have established what steps they’re going to take, then you can start laying out what steps will be matched with which sanctions relief. And so this is just a sequencing argument, but our view on this — just to go back to your question — our view on this has not changed. We are going to see specific commitments and follow-through from the Iranians as a part of our sort of phase down of sanctions relief.”
And the word from Iran?
Zarif said Saturday on state TV that Iran officially protested the U.S. statements to the EU negotiators. One of Iran’s top negotiators, Seyed Abbas Araqchi, said “the Lausanne statement explicitly states that the sanctions will be annulled; all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions will be removed in the first stage.”
Iran President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday: “We have never negotiated the suspension of sanctions and if it were the case, there would be no agreement” without full removal.
Commander of Iran’s Basij Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi today in Tehran: “The comments made after the Lausanne negotiations once again showed the United States’ strong grudge against the Iranians and proved that the US officials are liars and untrustworthy. After 9 days of breathtaking nuclear negotiations in Lausanne, the US president and other officials now deny the principal agreements and present opposing interpretations.”
In a Monday meeting between parliamentarians and Zarif, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported, “the immediate annulment of sanctions, safeguarding the nuclear rights and continued Research and Development (R&D) activities in the nuclear field were among the issues emphasized by the MPs.”
Summed up Iran Press TV, “no Iranian nuclear facility will be shut down or suspended while all sanctions against the Islamic Republic will be terminated.”