EU foreign
policy chief hails ‘decisive step’ after 18-months of intensive bargaining
The Guardian, Julian Borger in Lausanne and Paul Lewis in Washington, 2 April 2015
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| Iran nuclear talks: negotiators arrive at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne after the talks finished. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images |
Iran has
promised to make drastic cuts to its nuclear programme in return for sanctions
relief as part of a historic breakthrough in Lausanne on Thursday night that
could end a 13-year nuclear standoff.
The
“political understanding”, announced in the Swiss city’s technical university
and accompanied by a list of agreed parameters, followed 18 months of intensive
bargaining, culminating in an eight-day period of near continuous talks that
went long into the night, and on Wednesday, all the way through the night.
Reading out
a joint statement, the European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini,
hailed what she called a “decisive step” after more than a decade of work.
The Iranian
foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters the agreement would show
“our programme is exclusively peaceful, has always been and always will remain
exclusively peaceful”, while not hindering the country’s pursuit of atomic
energy for civilian purposes.
The US
secretary of state, John Kerry, mindful of scepticism back in the US, declared:
“A final deal will not rely on promises; it will rely on proof.”
The
declaration of a framework deal is both preliminary and partial. It does not
cover all the issues in dispute and is intended to be only a precursor to a
full comprehensive and detailed agreement due to be completed by the end of
June. Before then, the understanding must survive attack from hardliners in
Iran and the US.
But the
joint statement and the details published in Lausanne represent a set of basic
compromises that had eluded negotiators for many years. Iran will cut its
nuclear infrastructure to the point that western governments are satisfied it
would take a year to “breakout” and build a bomb, if Tehran chose to follow
that path.
At the same
time, Iran will open itself up to a level of monitoring and scrutiny of its
nuclear programme that is likely to unparalleled anywhere in the world.
When all
that has been achieved, which could be in as little as six months, the
overwhelming bulk of international sanctions would be lifted and Iran would
re-enter the global economy.
The accord
also has the potential to be a turning point in normalising Iran’s adversarial
relations with the west, which have been a constant in world affairs since the
Islamic revolution of 1979.
“This could
be one of the most important diplomatic achievements in a generation or more,”
said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The UK foreign
secretary, Philip Hammond, said: “This is well beyond what many of us thought
possible even 18 months ago.”
Among the
main points of the understanding unveiled in Lausanne are:
- Iran’s infrastructure for uranium enrichment will be reduced by more than two thirds, from 19,000 installed centrifuges, to 6,104, of which only 5,060 will be used for uranium enrichment, for a period of 10 years.
- Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium will be reduced by 98% to 300kg for a period of 15 years.
- Iran’s heavy water reactor will be redesigned so it produces only tiny amounts of plutonium.
- Iran’s underground enrichment plant at Fordow will be turned into a research centre for medical and scientific work.
- Iran will be open to enhanced inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency for 20 years.
The first
major test of the understanding will come in the next few days when Kerry is
expected to present the details to a closed session of the Senate foreign
relations committee,before a vote on a bill that would give Congress the power
to accept or reject any nuclear agreement and another that would impose new
sanctions.
Kerry’s
opposite number at the talks, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is expected to return to
Tehran to a hero’s welcome from a public desperate to escape the shackles of
sanctions, but he has frequently warned his fellow negotiators that he will
face a backlash from hardliners opposed to dismantling any of Iran’s prized nuclear
infrastructure.
Kazem
Sadjadpour, an Iranian university professor, said on state TV: “I feel very
proud as an Iranian … This is a turning point in Iran’s history of diplomacy.
“This is a night of mourning for [Israeli PM Binyamin] Netanyahu and his warmongering
allies in the US congress.”
The nuclear
standoff with Iran has been a threat to global security and non-proliferation
for well over a decade since a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy
water production plant at Arak were exposed in 2002 by an opposition group,
most likely using Israeli intelligence.
Negotiations
began in 2003 with European states in which Iran offered to limit its capacity
to 3,000 centrifuges if its right to enrichment was recognised. The deal
collapsed by 2005 and there was no sign of compromise for the next eight years
as the international community ratcheted up sanctions and Iran responded
defiantly by expanding its nuclear programme, moving from production of
low-enriched uranium or 20%-enriched uranium, a major step towards the capacity
to make weapons grade fissile material.
The
confrontation continued to escalate until 2013 and the election of a pragmatist
president in Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who acted swiftly to establish lines of
communication with the White House and between Kerry and Zarif. An interim deal
was agreed in November 2013 that halted production of 20%-enriched uranium and
eliminated Iran’s stockpile of the material in return for access to $700m a
month of its assets frozen around the world.
The interim
deal, known as the Joint Plan of Action, bought time for a comprehensive
agreement which was initially intended to be completed by July last year. The
negotiators gave themselves another four months until November, and then after
marathon talks in Vienna, it was postponed again, setting 30 June as the new
deadline.
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US
President Bararck Obama gestures while making a statement at the White
House in
Washington, DC, on April 2, 2015 after a deal was reached on Iran's
nuclear
program (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)
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