Historic deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program

Six world powers reached an historic agreement with Iran allowing that nation to pursue a nuclear energy and research program, but preventing that program from producing a nuclear weapon.

The agreement between the so-called P5+1 – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States, plus Germany – and Iran was finally reached in the early hours of Tuesday in Vienna.

President Obama hailed the deal in televised remarks at the White House, saying the deal would end the threat that Iran would one day have a nuclear weapon.

“Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off,” he said.

In Vienna, European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini said the deal would mean Iran’s nuclear program would be “exclusively peaceful. Under no circumstances will Iran seek or seek to develop any nuclear weapon.”

“It’s not only a deal, it’s a good deal,” she said.

She noted that the deal represented a “shared commitment to peace” and a new chapter in international relations between Iran and the rest of the world.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to condemn the agreement. He called it “a bad mistake of historic proportions." He referred to the deal as “the most crucial issue of the State of Israel's future and security.”

“Far-reaching concessions were made in areas that were supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said. “Iran will receive hundreds of billions of dollars, with which it can fuel its terror machine, and pursue its aggression and terror in the region and the world.”

In its condemnation, Israel had an odd ally, Saudi Arabia. Speaking to Al Jazeera, a Saudi researcher, Mansour al-Marzouki, said “A nuclear deal with Tehran, from the Saudi perspective, means two things: Iran will have the ability to improve its economic standing, and the capability to create a nuclear weapon – since the deal will only take effect for a relatively short period of time, 15 years, and will not destroy Iran's technical capabilities to maintain a nuclear program.”

The deal resolves the thorniest issues that had appeared to stall the talks in recent days: access to Iran’s military facilities, the ability of the world to determine the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program, and the timing of the lifting of sanctions against a nation, which had been, for the most part, isolated internationally.

The deal came after a total of 12 years of discussions and 20 months of intense negotiations. The final meeting in the negotiating process ended at 1:16 a.m. in Vienna.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was at that meeting with the P5+1 representatives at the elegant Palais Coburg hotel, just as earlier in the evening he had been in final meetings involving Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and, after that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Under the terms of deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, will be responsible for arranging for and carrying out inspections aimed at determining any “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s past nuclear program.

Yukiya Amano, IAEA director general, on Tuesday issued a statement on a parallel agreement that he had signed with Iranian Vice President and Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Saleh. Amano said he was confident his agency would be able to complete an assessment of any so-called “PMD” by the Dec. 15. He said the agreement was “a significant step forward towards clarifying outstanding issues.”

The agreement, he said, “sets out a clear sequence of activities over the coming months, including the provision by Iran of explanations regarding outstanding issues.”

Those explanations include “the issue of Parchin,” a particularly controversial Iranian military base known to have been used for missile research.

The deal attracted immediate praise from peace organizations.

Tariq Rauf, former IAEA verification director who now heads the non-proliferation program at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, called the deal “the most significant multilateral nuclear agreement in two decades.” He went on to note that it was such a momentous agreement that it “seals the award of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize” to Kerry and Zarif.

Paul Kawika Martin, of the Peace Action group in Washington D.C., also hailed the accord. “This agreement will keep Iran at least a year away from having the fissile material needed to make a crude nuclear weapon for at least 10 years,” he said. “Without an agreement, that timeline shrinks to three months and the threat of war increases dramatically.”

But there was hardly universal praise. In New York, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder, while noting that his group hadn’t seen all the details of the deal, said Iran shouldn’t be trusted.

“Tehran has a long history of misleading the world,” he said in a statement. “Iran has in the past failed over and over again to live up to its treaty obligations. It has maintained secret military sites. I fear we may have entered into an agreement that revives the Iranian economy but won’t stop this regime from developing nuclear arms in the long term, which would have disastrous consequences for the entire region and the world.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 7:04 AM with the headline "Historic deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program."