Iran’s nuclear imbroglio: Landmark deal clinched at Geneva

Israel and Saudi Arabia oppose deal which could reshape Mideast politics.

GENEVA:

Six world powers agreed on a historic nuclear deal with Iran, as the latter agreed to curb its nuclear programme for the next six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief. But the accord is preliminary as it is meant to lay the foundations for a more permanent, comprehensive agreement later this year.

The deal was reached after marathon talks in Geneva that ended early Sunday after long tractions between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

Meanwhile, Tehran claimed at home that the accord recognised its ‘right’ to enrich uranium, which it says is for peaceful purposes, but Western leaders said the deal made no such reference.

The United States has held previously undisclosed, separate direct talks with Iran in recent months to encourage diplomacy towards a nuclear deal, according to the New York Times and US officials. Washington and Tehran have lacked diplomatic relations and been locked in hostility since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Therefore, detente between the two - opposed by Washington’s Israeli and Saudi allies - could reshape Middle East geo-politics.



Under the deal, Tehran will limit uranium enrichment – the area that raises most suspicions over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons drive – to low levels that can only be used for civilian energy purposes. It will neutralise its stockpile of uranium enriched to higher 20% purity – very close to weapons-grade – within six months, US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Geneva after clinching the deal.

“This is only a first step,” said Iranian Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We need to start moving in the direction of restoring confidence, a direction which we have managed to move against in the past.”

Under the accord, Iran will not add to its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, nor install more centrifuges or commission the Arak heavy-water reactor, which could produce plutonium fissile material.

UN atomic inspectors will also have additional, ‘unprecedented’ access, Kerry said, including daily site inspections at the two enrichment facilities of Fordo and Natanz.

In exchange, the Islamic republic will receive some $7 billion in sanctions relief and the powers promised to impose no new embargo measures for six months if Tehran sticks to the accord.

However, the vast raft of international sanctions that have badly hobbled the Iranian economy will remain untouched.

The interim sanctions relief was “limited, temporary, targeted, and reversible,” the White House said, stressing that “the vast bulk of our sanctions, including the oil, finance, and banking sanctions architecture” will stay in place.

But Hassan Rouhani, whose election as Iran’s president in June raised hopes of a thaw with the West, insisted, “Iran’s right to uranium enrichment on its soil was accepted in this nuclear deal by world powers”.

The deal, while freezing US plans for deeper cuts to Iranian oil exports, will not allow any more Iranian oil into the market or let Western energy investors into the country, US officials said.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama said, “Today, the United States, together with our close allies and partners, took an important first step toward a comprehensive solution that addresses our concerns with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear programme.”

And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the deal “could turn out to be the beginning of a historic agreement” for the Middle East.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2013.