Tricky Issues Loom on Deadline Day
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Jim Sciutto is CNN's chief national security correspondent. He joins us now from Washington. I think probably some lawmakers agree with that poll and with the people of America.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question, Carol, and that's why what you'll hear from Secretary of State John Kerry. He said this for a number of months now. In the old negotiations with the Soviet Union, the saying used to be "trust but verify". What Secretary Kerry will say about these talks is "verify but verify". Yes, he will grant there's very little trust. There's been a lot of Iranian violation of previous agreement. So the intention is the administration -- the Obama administration says is to make sure that in any agreement you are constantly verifying and monitoring so that really trust in their view is not involved. You're going to show and watch and see that there is compliance with the deal. But listen, you know, this is a difficult thing to do. There are a lot of hidden sites that have been built to be hidden in the past; sites were not revealed in the past. There are real questions going forward. You see that reflected very much in just the view of the American people.</s>COSTELLO: So the Obama administration says there's a 50/50 chance that a deal could be reached. What are you hearing?</s>SCIUTTO: Well, here's the thing. Anything can happen in the next seven and a half hours, before the deadline, midnight tonight, European time, Switzerland time. There appears to be momentum moving towards some sort of general agreement where you make a statement, you say we have made progress on these issues. We have the outlines of an agreement going forward. But in the so called technical phase between now and the end of June, you work out the issues that you haven't yet worked out -- kind of grant that there are things that still need to be involved. Now Carol, there's another word for that, I think you can argue -- an extension. You can call that another extension of the negotiations, if you're admitting you haven't worked out some of the key issues that are really standing in the way of a deal, but the argument might be, listen, we've made enough progress, everybody is invested. We can work the issues out. And just to give you an example, one of those issues is how quickly do you lift, for instance, the economic sanctions on Iran? Iran wants it right away. The U.S. and the West want to lift it gradually so that you can verify Iranian compliance with it. But, you know, that's not the only issue out there. It's also on there are indeed going forward, as you see up there on the screen, that first bullet point there, and how quickly those sanctions might snap back if Iran violates the deal. These are all big questions, and it looks like the momentum is towards some sort of general agreement where some of those big questions aren't answered yet. And that sounds to me like an extension. I don't know if you agree. But at least it seems that they might think they've made enough progress to move on.</s>COSTELLO: We'll see. Jim Sciutto -- I must say, I agree with you. Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it.</s>SCIUTTO: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: Let's talk more about this with former ambassador Nicholas Burns. He's also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Welcome, Mr. Ambassador.</s>NICHOLAS BURNS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT: Thank you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: How much is on the line for President Obama now to reach a deal?</s>BURNS: Well, this is a significant agreement for President Obama. If you think about his presidency more than six years now, I think he's focused more on Iran. It's been a higher priority for him than just about any other foreign policy issue, and the administration has put enormous time and commitment into these talks, designed to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power. So the stakes are very high for the United States, as well as for Iran, of course.</s>COSTELLO: So it's safe to say if this deal doesn't go through, it will be one of President Obama's worst failures?</s>BURNS: I wouldn't say that. I think that, you know, frankly what the President has been able to do here, very much following, by the way, the actions of second term president George W. Bush is to sanction Iran and to force them to the negotiating table. The Iranian program has been frozen in place since November of 2013, which is a very important fact here. And they haven't been able to make progress for a year and a half in that journey towards a nuclear weapon. So I think the administration has done well, but of course, the proof is going to be in the pudding, and we'll have to see what the final deal looks like. As Jim Sciutto said, it looks like today will be a framework -- kind of a conceptual framework of how the deal would be put together with some of the major elements in place. But there's a saying in diplomacy, "Nothing is over until it's over". And that over will be June 30th of this year.</s>COSTELLO: Ok. Well, let's say they put that framework together. You know, Congress still has to approve this deal, so I'm sure the President and his men and women will start to kind of try to convince lawmakers to push this deal through. Do you think they have a chance of convincing lawmakers that this is good for America and good for the world?</s>BURNS: I think they have a chance. Obviously it's a highly partisan environment. Many Republicans already seem to have their minds made up, which I think is a shame. In our constitutional process, the President leads on foreign policy particularly when we are involved in a high stakes, very complex international negotiation. I really think it's proper, Carol, for Congress to let the President complete these negotiations, and not to interfere with those negotiations as those 47 senators did when they sent a letter to the Iranian government, just last month, in the middle of these negotiations. Congress has a role to play, of course. But that role will come after June 30th, when the administration has a deal or doesn't have a deal. And if a deal is arrived at, then of course, Congress will have to decide whether it supports it or not. One of the provisions will likely be that Congress would have to lift at some point some of the statutory sanctions that were put in place by previous sessions of Congress. That's the proper role for Congress, but not to interfere with the United States while we're at the negotiating table with the Iranians and others.</s>COSTELLO: Ambassador Nicholas Burns -- thanks for your insight as always. I appreciate it.</s>BURNS: Thank you, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Still to come in the newsroom, for city employees in San Francisco, travel to Indiana is now off limits. The city's mayor taking action in the wake of that controversial religious freedom law. I'll talk with the mayor next.