Iran, six world powers reach historic nuclear deal

Diplomats said Tuesday that a landmark agreement had been reached on Iran’s programme in Vienna, with a final plenary session set for 10:30am local time to be followed by an announcement to the press.

"The agreement is concluded," a diplomat told AFP in the Austrian capital on the 18th day of marathon talks.

Officials say the deal includes allowing UN inspectors to request access to Iranian military sites and calls for sanctions to be reinstated if Iran fails to comply with the terms of the agreement, both major sticking points throughout the negotiations.

Under the deal UN inspectors can press for monitoring visits to Iranian military sites, diplomats said. Access, however, is by no means guaranteed. Tehran would have the right to challenge the UN request and an arbitration board composed of Iran and the P5+1 ̶  the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany ̶  would make the final decision.

The agreement is, nevertheless, a notable departure from previous assertions by top Iranian officials that they would never allow access to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Tehran has repeatedly turned down IAEA requests to visit sites where it suspects nuclear work was going on, including at Parchin, a military complex where the IAEA believes explosives testing linked to setting off a nuclear charge has been conducted.

In another apparent concession, Iran has accepted a “snapback” plan that will reinstate sanctions within 65 days if Tehran fails to comply with the terms of the Vienna deal, diplomats told Reuters on Tuesday.

Another sticking point, whether to lift a UN arms embargo on Iran, ended in an agreement that the embargo would stay in place for five years and UN missile sanctions would remain in force for eight years.

Israeli leaders were quick to condemn the historic agreement, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a “mistake of historic proportions”.

“Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons; many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders in Jerusalem.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz has earlier reiterated Israel’s opposition to the deal on Israeli Army Radio.

“What is being drafted, even if we managed to slightly improve it over the past year, is a bad agreement, full of loopholes,” he said. “If we call it by its true name, they are selling the world’s future for a questionable diplomatic achievement in the present.”

Many in Israel view a nuclear-capable Iran as an existential threat after former Iranian leaders have threatened to wipe Israel “off the map”.

The deal, concluded in Vienna, will now go to the UN Security Council which is expected to endorse it by the end of the month. Then come the mechanics of implementation – introducing long-term, verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear programme.

The agreement also faces hurdles within the US political establishment, with comments from both senior Republican and Democratic senators on Sunday suggesting that any deal would face tough scrutiny in the US Congress.

Republican lawmaker and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the deal will prove a "hard sell".

"It appears as if the administration's approach to this was to reach whatever agreement the Iranians are willing to enter into," he told Fox News.

And congressional approval may prove key to implementing the deal – the Senate voted overwhelmingly in May to pass a bill giving Congress the right to review, and potentially reject, any agreement that US diplomats conclude with Iran.

"The president has extensive authority under the law to provide sanctions relief to Iran as part of a comprehensive nuclear agreement," said Larry Hanauer, a senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. "Nevertheless, Congress can take a range of steps to facilitate, hinder, or even block the executive branch's efforts to relieve economic sanctions."
(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)
 france24.com
14/7/15
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Related:

• Iranian nuclear talks extended till Monday 

• Nucléaire iranien: après 21 mois, un accord historique a été trouvé ... 

• The United States' refusal to accept Iran's rights, particularly on sanctions, is blocking a deal between the Islamic state and the six major powers, a source told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency on Thursday...

• Iran calls on counterparts to choose agreement or coercion (Javad Zarif)

• Israeli reaction

Israel's deputy foreign minister accused Western powers of surrendering to Iran on
Tuesday after diplomats in Vienna said that six world powers had struck a deal with Iran on curbing its nuclear program.
"This deal is a historic surrender by the West to the axis of evil headed by Iran," Tzipi Hotovely said in a message on Twitter, the first reaction from a senior Israeli official to a deal. "Israel will act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to respond to the deal shortly. 
   alarabiya.net
14/7/15
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