US negotiator: ‘We will have many more issues with Iran’

President Obama’s energy chief, a top U.S. negotiator during last week’s Iran talks, said Sunday he prays Tehran abides by a tentative agreement well into the future.

“Hopefully they will comply for a long time,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said of the preliminary nuclear agreement.
 
Moniz added that Thursday’s potential framework for a final pact has lasting peace and stability in mind. Moniz aided Secretary of State John Kerry’s diplomatic bargaining with Iran in Lausanne, Switzerland, all last week.
 
{mosads}“This is a long-term arrangement,” he added. “We have blocked all of these pathways to a bomb.”
 
Moniz trumpeted the framework’s “unprecedented” access and transparency toward Iran’s nuclear energy program. But he added that it did not resolve other concerns the U.S. had with Iranian leadership.
 
“First of all, there is no question we will have many more issues with Iran,” Moniz argued.
 
“This agreement in no way lessens our working against them and supporting our friends and allies in the region very strongly,” he said.
 
Moniz’s remarks seemingly challenged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction to Thursday’s draft deal. Netanyahu said Friday his entire Cabinet is “united in strongly opposing” the outline’s details.
 
“We certainly have a very different view of the facts,” Moniz said of Netanyahu’s stance.
 
Obama has long argued diplomacy is the best strategy for preventing a nuclear Iran. The Israeli prime minister has countered that Tehran has previously proven untrustworthy and endangers global security.
 
Thursday’s rough sketch of a bargain came with broad international support. Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia helped U.S. efforts in outlining a possible accord
 
Obama greeted their success as a “historic” moment Thursday. The announcement comes after 18 months of tense negotiations between both sides.
 
The U.S. and its allies hope Iran will phase out its nuclear weapons research in exchange for economic sanctions relief. They have set June 30 as the deadline for a final deal.