Iran nuclear deal: negotiators announce 'framework' agreement

EU foreign policy chief hails ‘decisive step’ after 18-months of intensive bargaining

The Guardian, Julian Borger in Lausanne and Paul Lewis in Washington, 2 April 2015

Iran nuclear talks: negotiators arrive at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in
Lausanne after the talks finished. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Iran has promised to make drastic cuts to its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief as part of a historic breakthrough in Lausanne on Thursday night that could end a 13-year nuclear standoff.

The “political understanding”, announced in the Swiss city’s technical university and accompanied by a list of agreed parameters, followed 18 months of intensive bargaining, culminating in an eight-day period of near continuous talks that went long into the night, and on Wednesday, all the way through the night.

Reading out a joint statement, the European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, hailed what she called a “decisive step” after more than a decade of work.

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters the agreement would show “our programme is exclusively peaceful, has always been and always will remain exclusively peaceful”, while not hindering the country’s pursuit of atomic energy for civilian purposes.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, mindful of scepticism back in the US, declared: “A final deal will not rely on promises; it will rely on proof.”

The declaration of a framework deal is both preliminary and partial. It does not cover all the issues in dispute and is intended to be only a precursor to a full comprehensive and detailed agreement due to be completed by the end of June. Before then, the understanding must survive attack from hardliners in Iran and the US.

But the joint statement and the details published in Lausanne represent a set of basic compromises that had eluded negotiators for many years. Iran will cut its nuclear infrastructure to the point that western governments are satisfied it would take a year to “breakout” and build a bomb, if Tehran chose to follow that path.

At the same time, Iran will open itself up to a level of monitoring and scrutiny of its nuclear programme that is likely to unparalleled anywhere in the world.

When all that has been achieved, which could be in as little as six months, the overwhelming bulk of international sanctions would be lifted and Iran would re-enter the global economy.

The accord also has the potential to be a turning point in normalising Iran’s adversarial relations with the west, which have been a constant in world affairs since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

“This could be one of the most important diplomatic achievements in a generation or more,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.

The UK foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said: “This is well beyond what many of us thought possible even 18 months ago.”

Among the main points of the understanding unveiled in Lausanne are:

• Iran’s infrastructure for uranium enrichment will be reduced by more than two thirds, from 19,000 installed centrifuges, to 6,104, of which only 5,060 will be used for uranium enrichment, for a period of 10 years.
• Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium will be reduced by 98% to 300kg for a period of 15 years.
• Iran’s heavy water reactor will be redesigned so it produces only tiny amounts of plutonium.
• Iran’s underground enrichment plant at Fordow will be turned into a research centre for medical and scientific work.
• Iran will be open to enhanced inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency for 20 years.

The first major test of the understanding will come in the next few days when Kerry is expected to present the details to a closed session of the Senate foreign relations committee,before a vote on a bill that would give Congress the power to accept or reject any nuclear agreement and another that would impose new sanctions.

Kerry’s opposite number at the talks, Mohammad Javad Zarif, is expected to return to Tehran to a hero’s welcome from a public desperate to escape the shackles of sanctions, but he has frequently warned his fellow negotiators that he will face a backlash from hardliners opposed to dismantling any of Iran’s prized nuclear infrastructure.

Kazem Sadjadpour, an Iranian university professor, said on state TV: “I feel very proud as an Iranian … This is a turning point in Iran’s history of diplomacy. “This is a night of mourning for [Israeli PM Binyamin] Netanyahu and his warmongering allies in the US congress.”

The nuclear standoff with Iran has been a threat to global security and non-proliferation for well over a decade since a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy water production plant at Arak were exposed in 2002 by an opposition group, most likely using Israeli intelligence.

Negotiations began in 2003 with European states in which Iran offered to limit its capacity to 3,000 centrifuges if its right to enrichment was recognised. The deal collapsed by 2005 and there was no sign of compromise for the next eight years as the international community ratcheted up sanctions and Iran responded defiantly by expanding its nuclear programme, moving from production of low-enriched uranium or 20%-enriched uranium, a major step towards the capacity to make weapons grade fissile material.

The confrontation continued to escalate until 2013 and the election of a pragmatist president in Iran, Hassan Rouhani, who acted swiftly to establish lines of communication with the White House and between Kerry and Zarif. An interim deal was agreed in November 2013 that halted production of 20%-enriched uranium and eliminated Iran’s stockpile of the material in return for access to $700m a month of its assets frozen around the world.

The interim deal, known as the Joint Plan of Action, bought time for a comprehensive agreement which was initially intended to be completed by July last year. The negotiators gave themselves another four months until November, and then after marathon talks in Vienna, it was postponed again, setting 30 June as the new deadline.

US President Bararck Obama gestures while making a statement at the White 

House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2015 after a deal was reached on Iran's 

nuclear program (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)

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