The United States, Iran and five other world powers on Thursday announced an understanding outlining limits on Iran’s nuclear program intended to ensure it cannot lead to atomic weapons, directing negotiators toward achieving a comprehensive agreement within three months.
President Barack Obama hailed the deal as “historic” and said that, “if fully implemented” it would prevent Iran attaining the bomb, and would render the US, its allies and the world safer
He acknowledged that he and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “don’t agree” on how best to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, but said this deal was “the most effective way” to ensure Iran not get the bomb.
He vowed that “there will be no daylight, there is no daylight” between the US and Israel on security, and said the US would continue to stand with Israel in the face of Iran's policies.
Obama said he would be calling Netanyahu Thursday evening to update him on the framework agreement.
Today “we have achieved the framework” for a long-term deal, a framework “that would cut off every path” that Iran could take to the bomb, including the toughest inspections “ever negotiated,” he said.
He said the terms of the deal, first, closed off Iran’s plutonium route to the bomb. The core of the Arak reactor will be dismantled, he said.
Second, the uranium route would be closed, with two-thirds of Iran’s centrifuges no longer to be used, no enrichment at the Fordow facility, and no use of advanced centrifuges “for at least 10 years.” Most of Iran’s existing stocks of enriched uranium would be “neutralized.”
Third, as the best defense against a covert Iranian bid for the bomb, it would be subjected to unprecedented inspection. “If Iran cheats, the world will know it,” Obama said. “If we suspect, we will inspect.”
If it fully complies with the deal, Iran could “rejoin the family of nations,” the president said, stressing again that the deal had yet to be finalized.
Obama reiterated that, “Iran will never be permitted to develop a nuclear weapon.”
He said the deal provides for phased sanctions relief, but that if Iran violates the deal, “sanctions can be snapped back into place.”
Earlier, reading out a joint statement, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said a “decisive step” had been taken after more than a decade of negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif followed with the same statement in Farsi. He called the deal a “win-win” agreement.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the top diplomats of Britain, France and Germany also briefly took the stage behind them.
In a tweet, Kerry said there was an agreement “to resolve major issues on nuclear program. Back to work soon on a final deal.”
According to European officials quoted by the New York Times, under the terms of the deal “roughly 5,000 centrifuges will remain spinning enriched uranium at the main nuclear site at Natanz, about half the number currently running. The giant underground enrichment site at Fordo – which Israeli and some American officials fear is impervious to bombing – will be partly converted to advanced nuclear research and the production of medical isotopes… A major reactor at Arak, which officials feared could produce plutonium, would operate on a limited basis that would not provide enough fuel for a bomb.”
The thousands of Iranian centrifuges that are not to be used will be placed into IAEA-supervised storage, US officials said, to be available only as spare parts.
Mogherini said the seven nations would now start writing the text of a final accord. She cited several agreed-upon restrictions on Iran’s enrichment of material that can be used either for energy production or in nuclear warheads. She said Iran won’t produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Crucially for the Iranians, economic sanctions related to its nuclear programs are to be rolled back after the U.N. nuclear agency confirms compliance.
Israel’s Channel 2 news reported “dancing in the streets” of Iran at the news that the sanctions would ultimately be lifted.
President Barack Obama was set to speak about the breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear talks from the White House.
Obama has invested significant political capital in the nuclear negotiations. The talks have strained the U.S. relationship with Israel and deepened tensions with Congress.
One of Obama’s toughest challenges will be convincing Congress to hold off on legislation that would authorize new sanctions on Iran. The president has warned that the legislation could upend the delicate diplomacy.
Israeli leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the announced deal, demanding that it “significantly” roll back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and vowing to fight the agreement before it is finalized in the coming months.
Reports in Iranian media before the evening announcement said Iran would slash its active centrifuges from 19,000 to 6,000, and that the full deal would last for ten years.
The talks resumed Thursday several hours after a flurry of marathon overnight sessions between Kerry and Zarif, as well as other meetings among the six powers.
Officials with the six world powers were are trying to fashion more detailed documents on the steps they must take by June 30 to meet a host of goals.
As he headed to his own meeting earlier Thursday, Zarif said the talks had made “significant progress.” But he said drafts still had to be written. Reaching both agreement in Lausanne as well as a June final deal will be “a difficult job,” he said.
One problem, said Zarif, was differing voices among the other side at the table — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — making it difficult for them “to reach a coordination.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who left Lausanne Tuesday, said the two sides were close, the Interfax news agency reported. There are “only a few steps left to take or, in some cases, even-half steps, and some things have already been agreed upon,” he said.
But as the talks dragged on, one Western official said at one point early Thursday that they were “at a tough moment and the path forward is really unclear,” adding that the idea of breaking them off over Passover and Easter and resuming them next week had been informally raised.
The talks — the latest in more than a decade of diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear prowess — hit the weeklong mark on Thursday.
As the sides bore down on efforts to get a deal, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier canceled a planned visit to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was also back, less than a day after leaving the city.
This article has been edited from the source material.
