IRAN TALKS, ANOTHER OVERTIME – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  The Iran nuclear talks have been extended through Friday.   Hotels in Vienna are jubilant.  From AP and AFP:

The terms of the 2013 interim nuclear deal between Iran and major powers have been extended until Friday, the US said Tuesday, meaning this is the new effective deadline for talks on a final deal.

“To allow for the additional time to negotiate, we are taking the necessary technical steps for the measures of the Joint Point of Action (the 2013 agreement) to remain in place through July 10,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

“We are continuing to negotiate for the next couple of days,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters during a break from the negotiations in Vienna.

“This does not mean we are extending our deadline. I told you one week ago more or less. We are interpreting in a flexible way our deadline, which means that we are taking the time, the days we still need, to finalize the agreement,” she said.

She added that a deal is “something which is still possible even if we are now getting into the difficult time. I am here to stay, to continue together with all the teams. All the six teams are here.”

She said that foreign ministers may leave the talks but “are ready to come back in the coming hours and days.”

An Iranian spokesman told AFP meanwhile that for his delegation, “we have no deadline.”

COMMENT:  The key question here is whether negotiations through Friday trigger a provision in American law that would give Congress a full 60 days to consider any agreement.  It now stands at 30 days, but we've been told repeatedly that, after July 9th – which is Thursday – the consideration period doubles.  That would give opponents valuable time to build their case against what appears to be a very defective agreement.

July 7, 2015