DEADLINE? WHAT DEADLINE?

June 30, July 7 and July 10 were "deadlines" for an Iran deal, until they weren't. Secretary of State John Kerry announced from Vienna that talks would continue indefinitely:

"We will not rush and we will not be rushed,'' Kerry said, but "we are not going to sit at the negotiating table forever."

Capitol Hill observers noted that if no deal was reached and sent to Congress for review by Thursday, the period of congressional review provided for in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (a.k.a. Corker-Menendez) would be extended from 30 to 60 days. The Obama administration prefers to give congressional critics of the deal less time rather than more to debate its merits. If the deal isn't reached until after September 7, Congress would once again only have 30 days to review the deal.

Earlier this week, Iran threw another wrinkle into the negotiations by demanding that lifting U.N. sanctions against its ballistic missile program and ending the U.N. arms embargo on Iran be added to the deal.

During this latest round of talks, Iran has ramped up its anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric. The New York Times reports that hard-line elements in Iran don't want a deal that would normalize relations between Iran and the "Great Satan," the United States. Former Iranian president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was quoted in the Iranian media on Monday saying that the "presence of the forged Israeli regime is temporary, as eventually one day this alien existence, that has been urged into the body of an ancient nation and a historical region, will be wiped off the map." The Jerusalem Post reports that "a senior Iranian military official said Sunday that despite the emerging nuclear deal between Iran and the US-led P5+1 group of world powers, America will remain Tehran's enemy."

Notable commentary on the Iran negotiations:

Lee Smith writes that the U.S. is acting like Tehran's lawyer, making excuses for Iranian cheating on the so-called framework deal in place now.
Emanuele Ottolenghi writes that nobody really believes that the "central pillar supporting the Iran deal" - the ability to quickly snap sanctions back into place if Iran cheats on the deal - would actually happen.
Michael Eisenstadt reminds us that a critical element of the negotiations is still missing: Iran's ballistic missile development is not on the table.
And Charles Krauthammer minces no words about the likely deal:

The devil is not in the details. It's in the entire conception of the Iran deal, animated by President Obama's fantastical belief that he, uniquely, could achieve detente with a fanatical Islamist regime whose foundational purpose is to cleanse the Middle East of the poisonous corruption of American power and influence.