The deal between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia was nailed down early on Sunday after more than four days of negotiations.
President Barack Obama says a nuclear deal with Iran is an "important first step" toward addressing the world's concerns over the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear programme.
Obama says the deal includes "substantial limitations'' on Iran and cuts off the Iran's most likely path to a bomb.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the deal does not recognise Iran's right to enrich uranium. Speaking after the deal was struck, Kerry said the nuclear deal makes Israel and other US allies in the Middle East safer.
Tehran will halt progress on enrichment capacity and stop advancing on the heavy water reactor at Arak, in return there will unprecedented transparency and open access to international weapons inspection.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, "I hope we can start restoring the lost confidence.
The Iranian people demand respect for their rights and dignity, it is important to restore their confidence and I hope this process can do that."
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said "I'm delighted that we have got there, we are confident for a long term deal, this is the first step as you will see its very much within the framework of reaching a comprehensive agreement."
Speaking from Tehran Al Jazeera's Soraya Lennie said "Iranians have been waiting over a decade for a positive outcome.
"They are waking up to the news in a much more positive mood than at any other time during any of these talks," she added.
Frozen funds
The talks were aimed at finding a package of confidence-building steps to ease decades of tensions and banish the spectre of a Middle East war over Tehran's nuclear aspirations.
The Western powers' goal had been to cap Iran's nuclear energy programme, which has a history of evading UN inspections and investigations, to remove any risk of Tehran covertly refining uranium to a level suitable for bombs.
Tehran denies it would ever "weaponise" enrichment.
The draft deal that had been under discussion in Geneva would see Iran suspend its higher-grade uranium enrichment in exchange for the release of billions of dollars in Iranian funds frozen in foreign bank accounts, and renewed trade in precious metals, petrochemicals and aircraft parts.
- Iran will get access to $4.2 bn in foreign exchange as part of the agreement, a Western diplomat said on Sunday.
Diplomacy was stepped up after the landslide election of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, as Iranian president in June, replacing bellicose nationalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Rouhani aims to mend fences with big powers and get sanctions lifted. He obtained crucial public backing from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, keeping powerful hardline critics at bay.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/11/diplomats-strike-deal-iran-talks-201311242333773209.html
24/11/13
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- Iran will freeze up the whole country’s nuclear programme for six months and will suspend the construction of a heavy water reactor in Arak, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.
“We agreed that this will be the first stage of advancement to this goal, it will take six months, during which Iran will freeze up the whole country’s nuclear programme, will not add new centrifuges and will not take any steps related with the construction of a heavy water reactor in Arak, so, the whole volume of the Iranian nuclear programme, which, by the way, the IAEA is controlling fully and the agency will keep its control over it for next six months,” Lavrov noted.
http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/708780
24/11/13
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A top Israeli Cabinet minister has criticized the international deal over Iran's nuclear program, saying it’s based on "deception."......
ReplyDeleteIntelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, in charge of monitoring Iran's nuclear program, has said there is no reason for the world to be celebrating, AP reported.
He says the deal that was reached in Geneva on Sunday is based on "Iranian deception and self-delusion."
It was the first Israeli reaction to the deal.
Another senior Israeli official was reported to have called the agreement "a bad deal."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to discuss the matter with his Cabinet later on Sunday.
Israel has been calling for a deal that would shut down the Iranian nuclear program altogether.
Last week Israeli PM Netanyahu urged the maintenance of sanctions against Tehran in an interview to the German media. He said that Iran should provide more transparency and halt the construction of a plutonium reactor in Arak.
“And if they refuse to do so, increase the sanctions,” Netanyahu told Bild newspaper. “Because the options are not a bad deal or war. There is a third option: Keep the pressure up; in fact, increase the pressure.”
US President Barack Obama plans to talk to Netanyahu on Sunday to address Israel’s concerns about the Iran nuclear deal, according to a senior US official.
Earlier on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the deal between Iran and major world powers would make it more difficult for Iran to make a dash to build a nuclear weapon, and would make Israel and other American allies safer.
http://rt.com/news/israel-react-iran-deal-216/
24/11/14
Geneva Agreement 1st Step to Confidence: Iranian President ...
ReplyDeleteIranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that recent Geneva agreement is the first step to build confidence between Iran and the world powers.
For reaching the confidence, there is a long way ahead, but the first step was taken in the recent talks, said
Under this agreement, world powers recognized Iran's nuclear rights. Iran possesses the right to uranium enrichment by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said the Iranian president.
This agreement explicitly declares that Iran will continue its uranium enrichment, said Rouhani calling it an "achievement" for Iran's negotiating team.
Therefore, the uranium enrichment activities will continue as before, and Iran's nuclear sites will not stop their activities, he said.
Also, Rouhani said that under this agreement the regime of sanctions has started to split and the breaking will be completed in the future.
The Iranian nation has serious determination to continue the talks with the P5+1 group; namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, over its nuclear issue, said Rouhani.
Iran is ready to remove all the doubts on the country's nuclear program, he added.
If the P5+1 group fulfills its commitments relevant to the agreement, Iran will also implement the agreement; consequently, the talks will continue and further agreements will be reached, emphasized the president.
Iran and the P5+1 announced they have reached a deal early Sunday morning after five days of marathon talks in Geneva.
The United States and its allies will afford Iran with sanctions relief equivalent to 7 billion U.S. dollars under the terms of the six-month nuclear deal, according to a White House statement.
In exchange, Iran will halt nuclear enrichment above five percent in purity, it added.
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2013/11/24/2701s800259.htm
24/11/13
Fabius Says EU to Lift Some Iran Sanctions, Rules out Israeli Strike....
ReplyDeleteFrench foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Monday that the European Union would likely lift some sanctions on Iran in December, as part of a nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers.
Fabius also said Israel -- which blasted Sunday's agreement as a "historic mistake" -- was not likely to launch any preventative strikes on arch-foe Iran, "because no one would understand" such a move "at this stage."
Speaking on Europe 1 radio, Fabius said that EU foreign ministers would gather together in "a few weeks" to put forward a proposal to partially lift some sanctions, which the 28-member body will have to approve.
"This lifting of sanctions is limited, targeted and reversible," he said, adding that it would take place "in December".
After more than four days of intense negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 group, which includes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- the US, Britain, Russia, France, China-- plus Germany, sealed an interim deal in Geneva on Sunday morning.
Source: AFP
mme.gr
25/11/13
British envoy to Iran talks tells Israelis bulk of sanctions will stay in place ....
ReplyDeleteBritain's chief negotiator for the nuclear talks with Iran said Wednesday in Jerusalem that the United Kingdom will "monitor and police" sanctions against Iran to ensure it does not collapse. ......http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.560448
27/11/13
Tehran has strongly rejected Washington’s interpretation of the long-awaited interim nuclear agreement reached by the P5+1 nations in Geneva, as Iran’s Foreign Ministry labeled the factsheet released by the US a “one-sided interpretation.”..............
ReplyDeleteThe agreement, reached over the weekend in Geneva, outlines a framework for continued negotiations with Tehran, including a deal which is yet to be finalized. However, Iran now claims that the American factsheet, posted a few hours after the deal was announced on the website of the White House, has omitted some key points and is misleading the public by adjusting the language of the original agreement.
A spokeswoman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, Marziyeh Afkham, came out with the following statement published by the Fars news agency on Tuesday:
“What has been released by the website of the White House as a factsheet is a one-sided interpretation of the agreed text in Geneva and some of the explanations and words in the sheet contradict the text of the Joint Plan of Action [the title of the Iran-powers deal], and this factsheet has unfortunately been translated and released in the name of the Geneva agreement by certain media, which is not true.”
The spokeswoman gave no further details.
Iran, together with the P5+1 nations – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany – agreed on Sunday that the former will curb a substantial portion of its nuclear activities for a period of six months, which will be spent finalizing the conditions of the deal.
In light of the recent crippling economic sanctions against Iran, Western parties agreed to lift some, including those on gold, precious minerals, the auto sector and petrochemical exports. According to the American factsheet, this is a potential $1.5 billion in revenue for Iran. Additionally, it could also be getting an additional $4.2 billion in oil revenues.
Furthermore, “$400 million in governmental tuition assistance [may also be] transferred from restricted Iranian funds directly to recognized educational institutions in third countries to defray the tuition costs of Iranian students,” DC officials told the Washington Free Beacon, which reported on the story.
However, a key aspect in Iran’s nuclear program – its ability to enrich uranium – was claimed by the Foreign Ministry to differ in nature from the US interpretation.
Some key points from Tehran’s version, which was published by Fars, are as follows:
“This comprehensive solution would enable Iran to fully enjoy its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under the relevant articles of the NPT in conformity with its obligations therein.”
“This comprehensive solution would involve a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits and transparency measures to ensure the peaceful nature of the program,” it also says.
And finally, the draft stipulates that “this comprehensive solution would constitute an integrated whole where nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” ................http://rt.com/news/us-lied-agreement-iran-364/
27/11/13
Iran kündigt weitere Bauarbeiten in Atomanlage Arak an...
ReplyDeleteTrotz der vereinbarten Reduzierung seines Atomprogramms wird der Iran die Bauarbeiten an der Nuklearanlage in Arak fortsetzen. Dies kündigte Außenminister Dschawad Sarif an.
„Die Leistung des Reaktors wird nicht erhöht, es werden keine neuen Brennelemente hergestellt, es wird keine neuen Anlagen geben. Dennoch wird der Bau weiter gehen“, sagte Sarif nach Angaben der Agentur Reuters.
Sarif hatte am Wochenende in Genf mit den fünf UN-Vetomächten und Deutschland eine Übergangsregelung für das umstrittene iranische Atomprogramm vereinbart. Die vorläufige Übereinkunft sieht vor, dass Iran die Urananreicherung auf fünf Prozent begrenzt. Uran, das bereits auf 20 Prozent angereichert worden ist, soll wieder auf 5 Prozent verdünnt beziehungsweise für militärische Zwecke ungeeignet gemacht werden. Zudem verpflichtet sich die Islamische Republik dazu, seine Anreicherungskapazitäten in Natanz, Arak und Fordo nicht auszubauen.
Im Gegenzug werden die Wirtschaftssanktionen gegen den Iran gemildert. Eine umfassende Dauerlösung für Irans zivile Atomaktivitäten soll bei weiteren Gesprächen in den kommenden sechs Monaten ausgehandelt werden.
Der Iran steht bei der Weltgemeinschaft im Verdacht, unter dem Deckmantel seines Nuklearprogramms Atomwaffen zu entwickeln. Obwohl die Regierung in Teheran den zivilen Charakter ihrer Atomaktivitäten beteuert, hat der UN-Sicherheitsrat bereits mehrere Resolutionen mit Sanktionen verabschiedet. Die USA aber auch die EU und weitere Länder verhängten zudem einseitige Strafmaßnahmen gegen die Islamische Republik. Parallel dazu versuchen die sechs Vermittler Russland, USA, China, Großbritannien, Frankreich und Deutschland seit 2003, den Iran auf dem Verhandlungsweg von der Urananreicherung abzubringen.
http://de.ria.ru/politics/20131127/267365197.html
27/11/13