"The option of simply throwing in the towel and calling it quits is not something that appeals to any of the parties," Einhorn told the Los Angeles Times.
And even as early as December 2013, Gary Samore, who had been Obama's primary adviser on the Iran nuclear issue until he left the administration in January 2013, predicted at the Manama, Bahrain "regional security summit" that the most likely outcome of another six months of negotiations would not be an actual comprehensive agreement but rather another "interim agreement." Even more significantly, Samore suggested, that what he called a "process of rolling interim agreements" could last through the remainder of Obama's term.
Samore is both Executive Director for Research at Harvard's Belfer Center on Science and International Affairs and President of the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, which takes positions on the Iran nuclear issue that reflect Israeli interests. So it is revealing that Samore was openly promoting an extension of the talks in October 2014, telling the New York Times, "[W]e would favor an extension because it keeps the nuclear program frozen."
The remarks by Samore and Einhorn strongly suggest that the Obama administration has a strong incentive to maintain its hard-line demand for a major reduction in Iran's enrichment capabilities -- a demand to which Iran is unlikely to accede. And that was before the collapse of oil prices, putting even more pressure on the Iranian economy, which makes the administration even more confident about it diplomatic posture.
It is very difficult to imagine the administration rethinking its hard line unless and until Iran walks away from the negotiations at the end of the current extension and threatens to resume the development of its enrichment capabilities that it chose to freeze as a confidence-building measure.
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