Interim Iran Deal

Iran:

If the interim agreement holds up and leads to a final pact preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, could avert years of threats of U.S. or Israeli military intervention. It could also prove a turning point in decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran - and become a crowning foreign policy achievement of Obama's presidency.

After a lot of indecision and inconsistency in the Middle East, he needs one. So now we have the context of the return of the Queen's Rhyton and all the rest. Pity it's probably not real. One wonders whether the effects of certain sanctions being lifted will be the flow of more ancient coins and artefacts into Europe and the Americas from Iran. Not that the sanctions seem to have hindered a number of dealers getting their hands on material which they then placed on sale with no indication that it is licitly obtained.

Bradley Klapper, Julie Pace, Matthew Lee, 'Secret US-Iran talks set stage for nuke deal', AP News 24th Nov 2013.


State Department fact sheet [probably, just some of them].