Major powers clinched a historic deal on Tuesday aimed at ensuring Iran does not obtain the nuclear bomb, opening up Tehran’s stricken economy and potentially ending decades of bad blood with the West. Reached on day 18 of marathon talks in Vienna, the accord is aimed at resolving a 13-year standoff over Iran’s nuclear ambitions after repeated diplomatic failures and threats of military action. The historic deal was hailed by major nations in the world, including the US, Russia, members of the European Union and India, who called it a new chapter of hope for the world, but the Islamic republic’s arch-foe Israel branded it as a “historic mistake”.
The deal puts strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities for at least a decade and calls for stringent UN oversight, with world powers hoping that this will make any dash to make an atomic bomb virtually impossible. The international arms embargo against Iran will remain for five years but deliveries would be possible with special permission of the UN Security Council, Moscow said.
Tehran has accepted allowing the UN atomic watchdog tightly controlled “managed access” to military bases, an Iranian official said. Allowing visits to military bases to probe any suspicious nuclear activity was a key demand by major powers, but Tehran was deeply uneasy because of fears the inspections were a front for spying on military secrets.
Tehran will slash by around two-thirds the number of centrifuges from around 19,000 to 6,104, an Iranian “fact sheet” confirmed.
Painful international sanctions that have slashed the oil exports of OPEC’s fifth-largest producer by a quarter and choked its economy will be lifted and billions of dollars in frozen assets unblocked.
The deal -- which was built on a framework first hammered out in April -- is US President Barack Obama’s crowning foreign policy achievement six years after he told Iran’s leaders that if they “unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us”. It also the fruit of his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani’s attempts since his election in 2013 to end Iran’s isolation 35 years after the Islamic revolution.
Rouhani tweeted that the deal would open “new horizons”.
Hailing the landmark deal, US President Barack Obama said, “After two years of negotiations, the United States, together with our international partners, has achieved something that decades of animosity has not: a comprehensive long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” He said he will veto Congress’ plan to scuttle deal.
“I think this is a sign of hope for the entire world and we all know this is very much needed in this time,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said at the start of a final meeting which formally approved the accord.
“We are certain that today the world has breathed a huge sigh of relief,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani said, “God has accepted the nation’s prayers”, and the accord would lift “inhumane and tyrannical sanctions” that have caused years of economic distress to people and businesses. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the accord with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- which will provide sanctions relief for Tehran’s crippled economy -- was a “historic moment”. “We are reaching an agreement that is not perfect for anybody but it is what we could accomplish and it is an important achievement for all of us,” he said.
India’s External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said India has always maintained the nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue, terming the deal a “welcome development”. “While we wait to see the text of the agreement reached between Iran and the EU 3+3 in Vienna today, we welcome the successful conclusion of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear issue.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the accord saying, “Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons…Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world… It is impossible to prevent an agreement when the negotiators are willing to make more and more concessions to those who chant ‘Death to America’ even during the negotiations,” he said.
The agreement may lead to more cooperation between Tehran and Washington at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East with the emergence last year of the Islamic State group, a common enemy, which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq. Erasing decades of enmity will be tough, however, as seen in supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s July 11 comments about US “arrogance” and the burning of US and Israeli flags last week.
The prospect of better US-Iran relations alarms Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states, which are deeply suspicious of Shia Iran and accused it of stoking unrest in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.
The deal will prove a “hard sell” in the US Congress, top Republican and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
These opponents, backed by legions of lobbyists, are set to launch an intense campaign to try and secure a two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto and scupper the deal. Even if the agreement gets past Congress -- the Iranian parliament and the UN Security Council also have to approve it -- implementing the accord could be a rough ride. France said it expected UN Security Council approval “within days”.
The UN nuclear watchdog will have to verify that Iran does indeed scale down its facilities, clearing the way for the complex choreography of untangling the web of UN, US and EU sanctions.
“I think there is a real risk that during the early phase of putting everything in place, that we’ll see actions on both sides. That will undermine the durability of an agreement,” said Suzanne Maloney at the Brookings Institution.