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| From left, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, line up for a press announcement after the end of a new round of Nuclear Iran Talks in the Learning Center at the Swiss federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland, Thursday, April 2, 2015. |
LAUSANNE,
Switzerland (AP) -- Capping exhausting and contentious talks, Iran
and world powers sealed a breakthrough agreement Thursday outlining
limits on Iran's nuclear program to keep it from being able to produce
atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic was promised an end to years of
crippling economic sanctions, but only if negotiators transform the plan
into a comprehensive pact.
They will try to do that in the next three months.
The
United States and Iran, long-time adversaries who hashed out much of
the agreement, each hailed the efforts of their diplomats over days of
sleepless nights in Switzerland. Speaking at the White House, President
Barack Obama called it a "good deal" that would address concerns about
Iran's nuclear ambitions. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
called it a "win-win outcome."
Those involved
have spent 18 months in broader negotiations that were extended twice
since an interim accord was reached shortly after Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani entered office. That deal itself was the product of more
than a year of secret negotiations between the Obama administration and
Iran, a country the U.S. still considers the world's leading state
sponsor of terrorism.
Opponents of the
emerging accord, including Israel and Republican leaders in Congress,
reacted with skepticism. They criticized the outline for failing to do
enough to curb Iran's potential to produce nuclear weapons or to mandate
intrusive enough inspections. Obama disagreed.
"This
framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a
nuclear weapon," he declared. "This deal is not based on trust. It's
based on unprecedented verification."
If
implemented, the understandings reached Thursday would mark the first
time in more than a decade of diplomatic efforts that Iran's nuclear
efforts would be rolled back.
It commits
Tehran to significant cuts in centrifuges, the machines that can spin
uranium gas to levels used in nuclear warheads. Of the nearly 20,000
centrifuges Iran now has installed or running at its main enrichment
site, the country would be allowed to operate just over 5,000. Much of
its enriched stockpiles would be neutralized. A planned reactor would be
reconstructed so it produced no weapons-grade plutonium.
Monitoring and
inspections by the U.N. nuclear agency would be enhanced.
America's
negotiating partners in Europe strongly backed the result. President
Francois Hollande of France, which had pushed the U.S. for a tougher
stance, endorsed the accord while warning that "sanctions lifted can be
re-established if the agreement is not applied."
Obama
sought to frame the deal as a salve that reduces the chances of the
combustible Middle East becoming even more unstable with the
introduction of a nuclear-armed Iran. Many fear that would spark an arms
race that could spiral out of control in a region rife with sectarian
rivalry, terrorist threats and weak or failed states.
Obama
said he had spoken with Saudi Arabia's King Salman and that he'd invite
him and other Arab leaders to Camp David this spring to discuss
security strategy. The Sunni majority Saudis have made veiled threats
about creating their own nuclear program to counter Shia-led Iran.
The
American leader also spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, perhaps the sharpest critic of the diplomacy with
Iran. The White House said Obama told Netanyahu that the agreement "in
no way diminishes our concerns with respect to Iran's sponsorship of
terrorism and threats towards Israel."
A final
agreement "must significantly roll back Iran's nuclear capabilities and
stop its terrorism and aggression," Netanyahu said in Israel.
But
Obama saved his sharpest words for members of Congress who have
threatened to either try to kill the agreement or approve new sanctions
against Iran. Appearing in the Rose Garden, Obama said the issues at
stake are "bigger than politics."
"These are
matters of war and peace," he said, and if Congress kills the agreement
"international unity will collapse, and the path to conflict will
widen."
Hawks on Capitol Hill reacted slowly
to the news from the Swiss city of Lausanne, perhaps because the
framework was far more detailed than many diplomats had predicted over a
topsy-turvy week of negotiation.
House
Speaker John Boehner said it would be "naive to suggest the Iranian
regime will not continue to use its nuclear program, and any economic
relief, to further destabilize the region."
Senate
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said his
panel would vote this month on legislation giving Congress the right to
vote on a final deal. Freshman Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who penned a
letter that many GOP senators signed last month to Iran's leaders, said
he would work "to protect America from this very dangerous proposal."
Many
of the nuclear limits on Iran would be in place for a decade, while
others would last 15 or 20 years. Sanctions related to Iran's nuclear
programs would be suspended by the U.S., the United Nations and the
European Union after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed
Iran's compliance.
In a joint statement,
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iran's Zarif
called the agreement a "decisive step." Highlighting Iran's effort to
show a new face of its government, Zarif then held a news conference,
answering many questions in English, and Obama's statement was carried
live and uncensored on Iranian state TV.
Still, all sides spoke with a sense of caution.
"We
have taken a major step, but are still some way away from where we want
to be," Zarif told reporters, even as he voiced hope that a final
agreement might ease suspicion between the U.S. and Iran, which haven't
had diplomatic relations since the 1979 overthrow of the shah and the
subsequent U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
Zarif
said the agreement would show "our program is exclusively peaceful, has
always been and always will remain exclusively peaceful." But he also
said it would not hinder the country's pursuit of atomic energy for
civilian purposes. "We will continue enriching," he said. "We will
continue research and development." He said the heavy water reactor
would be "modernized."
Kerry lashed out at
critics who have demanded that Iran halt all uranium enrichment and
completely close a deeply buried underground facility that may be
impervious to an air attack.
"Simply demanding that Iran capitulate makes a nice sound bite, but it is not a policy, it is not a realistic plan," Kerry said.
The
final breakthrough came a day after a flurry of overnight sessions
between Kerry and Zarif, and meetings involving the six powers at a
luxury hotel in Lausanne.
As late as Thursday
afternoon, it still appeared an agreement might be beyond reach as the
U.S. pushed to spell out concrete commitments and Iran adamantly
demanded that only a vague statement be presented. In an apparent
compromise, some details were noted in the general statement and others
were saved for and a more detailed position paper issued by the White
House and State Department.
Some of that tension remained.
"There
is no need to spin using `fact sheets' so early on," Zarif tweeted. He
also questioned some of the assertions contained in the document, such
as the speed of a U.S. sanctions drawdown.
