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Kerry: Reaching final Iran nuclear deal 'could go either way,' as deadline nears

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. and Iran are closer to reaching a final nuclear deal but expressed uncertainty about hitting their 48-hour deadline, saying negotiations “could go either way.”
Kerry made his comments during a break in one-on-one talks in Vienna with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Zarif said Saturday that he and Kerry’s teams made significant headway by reaching a tentative agreement on some sanctions now being imposed on Iran for its nuclear program.
However, the deal must be approved by diplomats from the five other world powers involved in the talks, who are returning to Vienna on Sunday.
In addition, major sticking points remain on such issues as inspections of Iranian nuclear-related facilities.
“We have in fact made genuine progress but … we are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues," said Kerry, who was in his ninth day of negotiations in Vienna. "While I completely agree with … Zarif that we have never been closer, at this point, this negotiation could go either way."
The United States and the five other world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- have been negotiating with Iran for two years on curtailing that country’s uranium enrichment program toward creating a nuclear weapons.
The sides reached a framework agreement in April, with hopes of reaching a final deal this summer.
Tehran has denied that its enrichment program is for creating a nuclear weapon.
“If hard choices are made this week we can get an agreement,” Kerry also said. “If they are not made they will not. … If there's unwillingness to move on things that are important, of course we will walk away.”
If a deal is clinched by Tuesday, it would set up a decade of restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
Tuesday's deadline is the latest that has been set for a comprehensive pact that would replace the interim deal the world powers and Iran reached in November 2013.
The package was extended three times, most recently on June 30.
Critics of the United States’ diplomacy on the issue argue that President Obama's administration has been too conciliatory over the course of the negotiations.
Obama and U.S. officials say that is untrue. But they've also fiercely defended their overtures to Tehran and their willingness to allow the Iranians to maintain significant nuclear infrastructure, on the argument that a diplomatic agreement is preferable to military conflict.
“We want a good agreement, only a good agreement. And we are not going to shave anywhere at the margins in order just to get an agreement,” Kerry said. “This is something that the world will analyze, experts everywhere will look at. There are plenty of people in the nonproliferation community, nuclear experts who will look at this and none of us are going to be content to do something that can't pass scrutiny."

Christie vows to tackle thorny entitlement reform, accuses Paul of 'politicizing' national security

Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday downplayed his so-so poll numbers, arguing that 2016 presidential campaigns are just beginning and that he has no fear about tackling entitlement reform.
Christie told “Fox News Sunday” that 71 percent of federal spending now goes to debt service and entitlement programs, which include Social Security and Medicaid.
“We need to reform these programs, and we can do it in a way that's not going to throw anybody off the cliff,” he said in an interview taped last week and aired Sunday. “I've put that plan forward, and I'm going to keep talking about it. It's the third rail of American politics. They say don't touch it. I'm going to hug it.”
Christie argued such programs must be revised and that current spending on them is hurting investments in national defense, infrastructure and education.
“That’s just not acceptable to me nor is a massive tax increase on the American people to pay for it,” he said.
Christie downplayed his polls numbers, which essentially have him ninth nationally and sixth in early-voting-state New Hampshire, saying “campaigns matter.”
“If they didn’t, we’d still elect people right now,” he said.
Right now, the huge 2016 GOP presidential field has 14 candidates and is expected to increase to 16 and include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Christie is not expected to win or have a top finish in first-in-the-nation voting in Iowa, where the Republican Party’s most conservative candidates historically do the best.
However, Christie, more of an East Coast moderate, is expected to do better in the less conservative New Hampshire and would be allowed to participate in the GOP primary debates if he stays among the top 10.
On Sunday, he disagreed with calls by fellow GOP presidential candidate Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for a constitutional amendment that would lead to retention elections for Supreme Court justices, following recent decisions on ObamaCare and gay marriage.
He suggested that Americans should consider a process similar to that in New Jersey in which justices are appointed for a seven-year term, followed by the governor having the opportunity to again consider whether to nominate them for a lifetime tenure. 
“I don't want to see judges raising money and running for election,” Christie said.
He also accused fellow GOP presidential candidate Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul of politicizing national security by arguing against a section of the post-9/11 Patriot Act that allows federal investigators to track the metadata of electronic communication to thwart more potential terror attacks.
“He's wrong, and what he's done has made American weaker and more vulnerable,” Christie told Fox News. “And he's done it and then cut his speeches and put them on the Internet to raise money off of them. He's politicizing America's national security.”

Congress returns to face busy agenda, funding deadline

Witch & Scarecrow.

After July Fourth fireworks and parades, members of Congress return to work Tuesday facing a daunting summer workload and a pending deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown in the fall.
The funding fight is shaping up as a major partisan brawl against the backdrop of an intensifying campaign season. Republicans are eager to avoid another Capitol Hill mess as they struggle to hang onto control of Congress and try to take back the White House next year.
Already they are deep into the blame game with Democrats over who would be responsible if a shutdown does happen. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has denounced Democrats' "dangerously misguided strategy" while House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California accuses Boehner and his Republicans of pursuing "manufactured crises."
The funding deadline does not even arrive until Sept. 30, but lawmakers face more immediate tests. Near the top of the list is renewing highway funding before the government loses authority July 31 to send much-needed transportation money to the states right in the middle of summer driving season.
The highway bill probably also will be the way lawmakers try to renew the disputed federal Export-Import Bank, which makes and underwrites loans to help foreign companies buy U.S. products. The bank's charter expired June 30 due to congressional inaction, a defeat for business and a victory for conservative activists who turned killing the obscure agency into an anti-government cause celebre.
Depending on the progress of the Obama administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran, lawmakers could also face debate on that issue. Leading Republicans have made clear that they are prepared to reject any deal the administration comes up with.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday that Iran "should have faced a simple choice: they dismantle their nuclear program entirely, or they face economic devastation and military destruction of their nuclear facilities."
"It was actually both the fact of sanctions in 2013 and the threat of even tighter sanctions that drove them to the negotiating table," Cotton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said on ABC's "This Week."
"That's why we shouldn't have let up those sanctions," he added. "We should have insisted on the very simple terms that President Obama himself proposed at the outset of this process. Iran dismantles its nuclear program entirely and then they will get sanctions relief."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said any agreement with Tehran must be "comprehensive."
"It's got to prevent Iran from any steps towards producing a nuclear weapons," said Cardin, also appearing on ABC. "That means you have to have full inspections, you have to have inspections in the military sites.  You have to be able to determine if they can use covert activities in order to try to develop a nuclear weapon."
Beyond the issue of Iran, the Senate opens its legislative session with consideration of a major bipartisan education overhaul bill that rewrites the much-maligned No Child Left Behind law by shifting responsibility from the federal government to the states for public school standards.
"We're seven years overdue" for a rewrite, said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, the bill's chief sponsor.
The House also is moving forward with its own, Republican-written education overhaul bill, revived after leadership had to pull it earlier this year when conservatives revolted.
Even if both bills pass, though, it's uncertain whether Congress will be able to agree on a combined version to send to President Barack Obama. Indeed the prospects for any major legislative accomplishments arriving on Obama's desk in the remainder of the year look slim, though there's talk of the Senate following the House and moving forward on cybersecurity legislation.
That means that even though Obama was so buoyed when Congress sent him a major trade bill last month that he declared "This is so much fun, we should do it again," he may not get his wish.
But all issues are likely to be overshadowed by the government funding fight and suspense over how -- or if -- a shutdown can be avoided.
Democrats are pledging to oppose the annual spending bills to fund government agencies unless Republicans sit down with them to negotiate higher spending levels for domestic agencies. Republicans, who want more spending for the military but not domestic agencies, have so far refused. If there's no resolution by Sept. 30, the government will enter a partial shutdown.
It's an outcome all involved say they want to avoid. Yet Democrats who watched Republicans pay a steep political price for forcing a partial shutdown over Obama's health care law in 2013 -- and come within hours of partially shutting down the Department of Homeland Security this year -- claim confidence they have the upper hand.
"Given that a Democratic president needs to sign anything and you need Democratic votes in both chambers, the writing is on the wall here," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.
Republicans insist Democrats are running a risk by opposing spending bills for priorities like troop funding -- but are not yet discussing how they will proceed if Democrats don't back down.
As a result it looks likely current funding levels could be temporarily extended beyond Sept. 30 to allow more time to negotiate a solution.
And it's not the only consequential deadline this fall. The government's borrowing limit will also need to be raised sometime before the end of the year, another issue that's ripe for brinkmanship. Some popular expiring tax breaks will also need to be extended, and the Federal Aviation Administration must be renewed. An industry-friendly FAA bill was delayed in the House recently although aides said that was unrelated to the Justice Department's newly disclosed investigation of airline pricing.
In the meantime, the presence of several presidential candidates in the Senate make action in that chamber unpredictable, Congress will be out for another recess during the month of August -- and in September Pope Francis will visit Capitol Hill for a first-ever papal address to Congress.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns after 'no' vote against bailout

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned from his post Monday after Greek citizens voted to reject further austerity measures the day prior, the Associated Press reported.
Varoufakis said he was told shortly after the voters rejected Sunday's referendum regarding demands by international creditors to impose further austerity measures in exchange for a bailout package for its bankrupt economy, that the other eurozone finance ministers and Greece's other creditors would prefer he not attend the ministers' meetings.
Varoufakis issued an announcement saying Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had judged that Varoufakis' resignation "might help achieve a deal" and that he was leaving the finance ministry for this reason Monday.
Varoufakis is known for his brash style and fondness for frequent media appearances at the start of his tenure when the new government was formed in January. He had visibly annoyed many of the eurozone's finance ministers during Greece's debt negotiations.
"Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants... for my ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the prime minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement."
"For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today," Varoufakis wrote in a blog post, according to The Guardian.
“Like all struggles for democratic rights, so too this historic rejection of the Eurogroup’s 25th June ultimatum comes with a large price tag attached,” the post read, according to the Athenian newspaper Kathmerini.
“It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms,” Varoufakis wrote.
He said the prime minister had judged it "potentially helpful to him" if he is absent from the upcoming meetings with Greece's creditors.
"I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride," he said, adding that he fully supports the prime minister and the government.
Varoufakis had called the voters' rejection of the proposal a "brave" move, Sky News reported.
The referendum "will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage," Varoufakis said.
With his brash style and fondness for frequent media appearances at the start of his tenure at the ministry when the new government was formed in January, Varoufakis had visibly annoyed many of the eurozone's finance ministers during Greece's debt negotiations.
Government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis said in a statement that a replacement for Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who resigned Monday, would be announced later in the day after a meeting of political party leaders.
Sakellaridis said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras "feels the need to thank (Varoufakis) for his ceaseless efforts to promote the government's positions and the interests of the Greek people, under very difficult conditions."
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was elected on promises to repeal the austerity demanded in return for a bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund, and negotiations broke down late last month after dragging on unsuccessfully for five months.
With his hight-stakes gamble to call a referendum on creditor proposals with just a week's notice, Tsipras aimed to show creditors that Greeks, whose economy has been shattered and who face spiralling unemployment and poverty, have had enough and that the austerity prescribed isn't working.
At one Athens bank, an employee faced a crowd of elderly Greeks as he tried to distribute tag queue positions to eto enter into the bank to withdraw a maximum of 120 euros ($134) for the week, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, a prominent lawmaker with one of Germany's governing parties says he doubts that the departure of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis will make talks on Greece's financial future easier.
Carsten Schneider of the center-left Social Democrats told ZDF television that the resignation is "not so important" and what matters is what policies the Greek government wants to pursue, the Associated Press reported.
Varoufakis, who had annoyed many of his fellow eurozone finance ministers, said he was told that some ministers and other creditors would prefer that he not attend the ministers' meetings.
Schneider said that Varoufakis "can't keep his promises and is drawing the consequences by fleeing." He added that a new minister might create a little more trust, but what is needed is Greek willingness to accept reforms and stabilize the country.