Saturday, 23 Nov 2013 05:02 PM
Iran and six world powers reached a breakthrough deal early on
Sunday to curb Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for limited
sanctions relief, in what could be the first sign of an emerging
rapprochement between the Islamic state and the West.
Aimed at ending a dangerous standoff, the agreement between Iran and the
United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia was nailed
down after more than four days of tortuous negotiations in the Swiss
city of Geneva.
Halting Iran's most sensitive nuclear work, it was designed as a package
of confidence-building steps to ease decades of tensions and
confrontation and banish the specter of a Middle East war over Tehran's
nuclear aspirations.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has been
coordinating talks with Iran on behalf of the major powers, said it
created time and space for talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive
solution to the dispute.
"This is only a first step," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif told a news conference. "We need to start moving in the direction
of restoring confidence, a direction in which we have managed to move
against in the past."
In Washington, President Barack Obama said that if Iran did not meet its
commitments during a six-month period, the United States would turn off
sanctions relief and "ratchet up the pressure."
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government denounced the
agreement as "a bad deal" that Israel did not regard itself as bound
by.
Before Sunday's agreement, Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only
nuclear power, said the deal being offered would give Iran more time to
master nuclear technology and amass potential bomb fuel.
The West fears that Iran has been seeking to develop a nuclear weapons
capability. The Islamic Republic denies that, saying its nuclear program
is a peaceful energy project.
The United States said the agreement halted progress on Iran's nuclear
program, including construction of the Arak research reactor, which is
of special concern for the West as it can yield potential bomb material.
It would neutralize Iran's stockpile of uranium refined to a fissile
concentration of 20 percent, which is a close step away from the level
needed for weapons, and calls for intrusive U.N. nuclear inspections, a
senior U.S. official said.
Iran has also committed to stop uranium enrichment above a fissile purity of 5 percent, a U.S. fact sheet said.
Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear power plants — Iran's stated
goal — but also provide the fissile core of an atomic bomb if refined
much further.
Diplomacy with Iran was stepped up after the landslide election of
Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, as Iranian president in June,
replacing bellicose nationalist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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