The framework deal on Iran’s nuclear program has come under heavy scrutiny as the Obama administration seeks to sell the agreement to skeptical lawmakers.
Many of the terms mark a shift from President Obama’s stated goals at the start of negotiations 18 months ago.
Democrats and the White House say those changes are the result of tough negotiations and are calling for time to allow diplomats to finalize the accord.
But Republican critics say the administration made concessions that go too far and secured little in return.Here are five areas where the administration shifted course during negotiations:
1. Banning uranium enrichment
Before talks began, the Obama administration and the United Nations Security Council called for Iran to stop all uranium enrichment.
The framework agreement, though, allows Iran to continue enriching uranium and producing plutonium for domestic civilian use.
“Zero enrichment” was a key demand since 2009, said Michael Singh, a senior fellow and managing director at The Washington Institute. “We basically went from zero to a number that kept going up.”
The deal’s critics worry any enrichment could quickly be diverted to military use.
Omri Ceren, senior advisor for strategy at the Israel Project, said the administration started “sliding” on zero enrichment after talks began.
But U.S. officials have suggested that halting all enrichment was never a realistic goal, and instead a key bargaining chip to secure other concessions from Iran.
“As soon as we got into the real negotiations with them, we understood that any final deal was going to involve some domestic enrichment capability,” a senior U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal last week. “But I can honestly tell you, we always anticipated that.”
Reza Marashi, research director at the National Iranian American Council and a former State Department official, said the U.S. had to budge on this demand for the talks to advance.
“It was the icebreaker. It was what allowed these negotiations to take root,” he said.
He said it led to key concessions from Iran, including unprecedented inspections of nuclear facilities.
“It’s the single most important point in my opinion, in terms of getting negotiations off the ground,” he said. “Once that position softened, it allowed the Iranian position to soften.”
More at The Hill