Imperfect Deal will Help an Uneasy Peace

Iran now has the knowledge and expertise needed to build a nuclear weapon, writes Nicholas Burns. It may be the biggest foreign policy bet of Barack Obama’s presidency. It is also a sensible step forward for Iran and the west. Ten years in the making, the framework nuclear deal announced on Thursday in Lausanne makes it reasonable to hope that a final written pact can be hammered out by the summer, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. This tentative progress is testament to the power of diplomacy. President Obama and John Kerry, his secretary of state, deserve credit for persisting with negotiations despite trenchant opposition from some quarters in Congress. Still, the tortuous negotiations in Lausanne this week, along with Iran’s record of deception on the nuclear issue, also testify to how hard it will be to conclude a final deal.