THE TALKS – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:   John Kerry, who holds a U.S. Government position, is now engaged in intensive talks to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program by March 31st.  That is the presumed deadline for this stage of negotiations. 

Kerry and his boss are aware that, if the talks collapse, Congress may step in and demand a role, through legislation, in any future nuclear negotiations with Iran.  It may also impose new sanctions. Obama has threatened to veto any Congressional action, which would set up a historic confrontation with the House and Senate.

Iran is also proving its usual difficult self.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Talks over Iran’s nuclear program have hit a stumbling block a week before a key deadline because Tehran has failed to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past, say people close to the negotiations.

In response, these people say, the U.S. and its diplomatic partners are revising their demands on Iran to address these concerns before they agree to finalize a nuclear deal, which would repeal U.N. sanctions against the country.

“Progress has been very limited,” Yukiya Amano, who heads the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “No more new issues” have been addressed.

Secretary of State John Kerry is resuming talks on Thursday in Lausanne with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, in pursuit of a nuclear agreement.

The two diplomats—who are expected to be joined later in the week by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, U.K., China, Russia and the European Union—are seeking to forge a political understanding by a March 31 deadline that would constrain Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of Western sanctions. Key U.S. allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, have publicly spoken out against the Iran diplomacy. And Congress could move to implement new sanctions on Iran if no political deal is reached this month.

U.S. and European diplomats have voiced guarded optimism that the deal could be reached by the late March deadline.

But Iran’s refusal to implement the IAEA work plan threatens to undermine the prospects for this comprehensive agreement, say diplomats involved in the talks. The ability of the IAEA and global powers to verify whether Iran is abiding by any future deal to prevent it from racing to develop a nuclear weapon depends, in part, on an understanding of its past work, according to these officials.

COMMENT:  There is some informed speculation that our pathetic diplomats will modify our demands to make it easier to reach an agreement with Iran.  I don't doubt it.  The only important thing to the man in the White House is his legacy, especially his legacy on the political left.

What is remarkable is that we have almost all our Mideast allies against us on this negotiation, and Obama doesn't care. 

March 26, 2015