Some details here. Not a final agreement, but a “framework” for a future deal. President Obama stresses that it is not based on trust, but rather on detailed and ongoing verification. On the surface, it sounds great – allowing small nuclear energy capabilities (specific reactor technologies that cannot make nuclear weapons material) without the capability to produce weapons. Thoughts?
What’s to like? It looks as though Iran keeps all of its capabilities and has sanctions lifted. They get to keep lying about their programs and we voluntarily remove sanctions that were crippling their economy. What does the US get out of this framework?
I don’t understand what the “framework” is. That appears to me like they want it to sound like an agreement when no agreement was reached. They kicked the can (ie, the details of the deal) down the road for 3 more months. Meanwhile, sanctions have been lifted". Iran got what they wanted, and we got nothing, yet. Maybe we get something in 3 months, and maybe we don’t.
Maybe more details will be forthcoming in the days ahead, but I don’t see what we got out of this.
Missed the edit window. Why not offer the Iranians a “framework” for lifting sanctions? I thought the lifting of sanctions was supposed to be part of “the deal”, not part of a “framework for a deal”.
According to what I’m reading and seeing on TV, the final deal this framework describes only allows nuclear energy capabilities, with ongoing inspections to ensure that there are no weapons capabilities. It’s important to note that some types of nuclear reactors are completely unable to produce materials used for nuclear weapons.
If lifting sanctions actually gets this, it seems like a fine exchange. Of course there’s the risk of Iran just faking it to gain the lifting of sanctions – we shall see if that’s the case. Apparently Kerry and the European negotiators think this chance is low enough to be worth the risk.
Call me cynical, but this looks like a political move to make it seem like “something” was accomplished even though no deal was reached. It makes us look overly eager to reach a deal. More eager than Iran is, which puts us a disadvantage as we actually negotiate the deal.
It’s a small step in the right direction. Of course it will drive the right wingers nuts, since all they can think of is war war war. So we have a framework to build on, allow some sanctions to ease and more to ease on completion. If Iran is ever to rejoin the family of peaceful nations it has to start somewhere. Why not now?
Okay, you’re cynical. 
It is a step in the right direction.
No, that isn’t true. Iran has to eliminate 2/3rd of its centerfuges for enriching uranium, including all of their advanced ones. Iran has to dispose of 97% of its stockpile of low enriched uranium. This means that if Iran were to void this agreement, it would take one year to produce enough highly enriched uranium to make a bomb. Right now, that time is only 2 to 3 months.
Iran also must convert the Fordow facility so it cannot enrich uranium. This is the site of the infamous underground uranium enrichment facility. The IAEA is promised full access to this and all other facilities.
To the contrary, the agreement opens up Iran’s nuclear facilities to IAEA inspections, which have been half-assed at best so far.
That isn’t accurate either. The US and EU agreed to lift sanctions if the IAEA confirms that Iran is taking the promised steps. Similarly, UN resolutions will be lifted when Iran fulfills its commitments.
Folks, this is simply common sense. The idea that we can just sanction a country into doing our will didn’t work with Cuba, and it isn’t going to work with Iran. Those sanctions are working for now, but they aren’t going to work over the long term. Countries will inevitably drop their sanctions for one reason or another over time, so our leverage – that is, the leverage of the US, UK, France, Germany, China, Russia, the EU, and most of the modern world – is at its best right now, and will wane in the future.
If Iran breaks the agreement in the next 15 years, we’re back to exactly the spot that we are today. If Iran carries out the agreement, we’ve solved a problem until 2030. I don’t know if this agreement will be successful, but it is stupid not to try.
ETA: link to more details: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/parametersforajointcomprehenisveplanofaction.pdf
Of course they do.
Any achievement by Obama, regardless how tentative, gives them a collective migraine. If this deal holds and accomplishes the goal of eliminating Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons, it will be a huge deal, and conservatives’ brains will go all asplodey. 
Aww, did thems not get their widdle war?
Pretty sure the country that’s under crippling economic sanctions is more eager to reach a deal than the dozens of countries that aren’t.
The only negotiation towards peace that has no element of risk is the unconditional surrender.
What is the basis for claims that this is not an actual agreement but just is being called one to make it look like something was done?
Fwiw my friend in Tehran (hurray Facebook) thinks of this as involving huge concessions by the Iranian government and is overjoyed about it.
Leave the negotiations, let the sanctions continue to bleed them dry, let them come to you, and secure a solid deal.
Obama wimped out, got conned by the Iranians, and settled for a meaningless deal in the end.
He’s a joke in the international sphere. Putin played him; now the Iranians.
But yay we got something.
Worked for getting Castro out of Cuba, right?
No deal has been made yet, just the framework for a deal that will eliminate the Iranian capacity to develop nuclear weapons.
So say always-wrong guys like McCain and Graham; I’m less than convinced by their assertions.
Relieve some sanctions immediately. Especially targeted at sanctions that will see relief for the ordinary Iranian citizen. Let their people see the tangible advantages gained by cooperation, and they will press their leaders forward.