Iran, world powers reach historic nuclear deal
By , E-mail the writersThe deal was reached after four days of marathon bargaining and an 11th-hour intervention by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and China. the sources said.
“We have reached an agreement,” Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a Twitter posting that was echoed in a separate posting by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The deal, intended as first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials familiar with the details. It halts the installation of new centrifuges and caps the amount and type of enriched uranium that Iran is allowed to produce.
Iran also agreed to halt work on key components of a heavy-water reactor that could some day provide Iran with a source of plutonium. In addition, Iran accepted a dramatic increase in oversight, including daily monitoring by international nuclear inspectors, the officials said.
The concessions not only halt Iran’s nuclear advances but also make it virtually impossible for Tehran to build a nuclear weapon without be detected, the officials said. In return, Iran will receive modest sanctions relief and access to some of its frozen accounts overseas, concessions said to value less than $7 billion over the six-month term of the deal. The sanctions would be reinstated if Iran violates the agreement’s terms.
The agreement is a long-sought victory for the Obama administration, which from its earliest days made the Iranian nuclear program one of its top foreign policy priorities. The administration, helped by allies as well as Congress, achieved unprecedented success in imposing harsh economic sanctions that cut Iran’s vital oil exports in half and decimated the country’s currency. But it was hoping to quickly finalize an agreement in the face of threats by Congress to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran.
The deal is also a win for Kerry, who traveled to Geneva twice in two weeks to lend his personal diplomacy to the negotiations.
Still, the agreement is likely to face heavy opposition from key allies — chiefly Israel and Saudi Arabia -- as well as Congressional skeptics who have demanded much greater concessions from Iran, including the dismantling of its enrichment program.
The marathon discussions with Iran were described by Western diplomats as “very difficult” and “intense,” and several officials had sought to lower expectations that a resolution could be reached before Sunday, when Kerry and the other foreign ministers were due to depart. Negotiations over the deal had remained snarled late into the late evening Saturday, with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia the European Union and the United States huddled in a hotel conference room.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/kerry-in-geneva-raising-hopes-for-historic-nuclear-deal-with-iran/2013/11/23/53e7bfe6-5430-11e3-9fe0-fd2ca728e67c_story.html
