http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reza-marashi/in-vienna-us-and-iran-wor_b_5990212.html

Reza Marashi  Research Director, National Iranian American Council

In Vienna, U.S. and Iran Working to Beat the Clock

Updated: 10/15/2014 

"The Iran nuclear negotiations are on life support. Iranian officials are trying to leverage regional instability to win more favorable terms in a nuclear deal. Iran's stubbornness has caused it to miss the last best chance at finalizing a nuclear deal by the November 24th deadline." These are the latest arguments circulating in Washington, D.C. The noise coming from Tehran about red lines is equally unhelpful. But here in Vienna, one can't help but notice a stark difference between this rhetoric and reality.
Thousands of miles away from the spin factories in Washington and Tehran, negotiators are working diligently to seal the deal. To hear the Europeans tell it, a deal is within reach.
"[Russian foreign minister] Lavrov was telling the truth. The deal is 95 percent done, but the remaining 5 percent is the most difficult details," a Western diplomat told me. "When you see the various drafts of the agreement we're putting together, it's obvious we've come a long way -- further than many thought possible. Relatively speaking, very little disputed language remains in brackets."