WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said the United States and other nations would begin to give Iran “modest relief” on economic sanctions as long as Iran lives up to its end of an agreement reached yesterday to start implementing a nuclear deal.
Obama’s statement came as six world powers and Iran agreed on a six-month plan that would curb Tehran’s most sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for some relief from oil and other economic sanctions while the parties negotiate a broader settlement on the scope of Iran’s nuclear programme.
Obama said the deal was the “first time in a decade” Iran had agreed to halt progress on its nuclear program and said the agreement will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. “With today’s agreement, we have made concrete progress,” Obama said in a statement, noting work now begins on the broader, long-term agreement.
“I have no illusions about how hard it will be to achieve this objective, but for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world, now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed,” he said.
But Obama also faces pressure from the US Congress to pass new sanctions on Iran as a type of “insurance policy” to push Tehran to abide by the new deal.
Fifty-nine senators — 16 of them Democrats — of the 100 in the chamber have signed on to a bill that would require further cuts in Iran’s oil exports.
Obama said yesterday he would veto the bill if Congress passes it, but said the United States would be ready to increase its sanctions if Iran fails to comply with the terms of the six-month deal.
Iran said yesterday that an accord it struck with world powers on its disputed nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions will take effect from January 20.
Main points
* Iran has agreed it will not enrich uranium over five percent for the six months.
* Iran has committed to neutralising its entire stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent, which is close to weapons-grade and therefore a main area of concern. Half of this will be diluted to five percent or under. The rest will be oxidised so it can contribute to making fuel for a Tehran reactor that produces medical isotopes.
* Iran will build no new locations for enrichment, and halt progress towards commissioning a reactor at its Arak plant that would produce plutonium that could also be used in a nuclear bomb.
* Iran will not reprocess or construct a facility capable of reprocessing spent fuel from the Arak reactor in order to extract plutonium.
* Iran will allow daily site inspections by experts from the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA at two of its enrichment facilities — Fordo and Natanz — and hand over information about the design of its Arak reactor.
* The P5+1 powers and Iran will establish a “joint commission” to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency and monitor implementation of the agreement.
* In return, the P5+1 will ease sanctions in what the White House has described as a “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible” manner to the tune of about $7bn, but the “vast bulk” of oil, finance and banking sanctions will remain in place.
* The UN Security Council and European Union will not impose any new nuclear-related sanctions for six months.
* They will suspend US and EU sanctions on Iran’s petrochemical exports and associated services such as insurance or transportation, and on gold and precious metals and associated services. They will also suspend US trade restrictions on Iran’s auto industry and associated services and licence the supply and installation in Iran of spare parts for flight safety.
* An agreed amount of revenue from sanctioned Iranian oil sales held abroad will be repatriated.
Reuters
