Brussels, 07/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - During the evening of Thursday 2 April, the E3+3 and Iran reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. The technical details will have to be settled by 30 June.
“We have taken a decisive step: we have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA)”, stated High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and Iran's Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif in a joint press release. “This is a crucial decision laying the agreed basis for the final text of the JCPOA. We can now restart drafting the text and annexes of the JCPOA, guided by the solutions developed in these days”, they added. The plan of action, including the technical details, will be drawn up over the coming weeks and months at political and expert levels. The deadline for adopting the text is 30 June.
“This agreement is a stepping stone agreement that includes positive and undeniable steps forward - but work remains to be done”, said France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius. “Now, possibly, is the beginning of a new process. We will try to move forwards, but we are not yet at the end of the road”, he added. “Many key details will be finalised over the next three months and nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed”, said US President Barack Obama.
A new United Nations Security Council resolution will then have to approve the joint plan of action. It will also terminate the previous nuclear-related resolutions and integrate some restrictive measures for an agreed time period.
Reduced nuclear capacity for lifting of sanctions. At the end of an 8-day meeting, the negotiators succeeded in agreeing on several points. Iran's enrichment capacity, enrichment level and stockpile will be limited for specified durations, and there will be no other enrichment facility than Natanz. Iran's research and development on centrifuges will be carried out on a scope and schedule that has been mutually agreed.
The number of Iranian centrifuges will drop from 19,000 to 6,104, and only 5,060 will have the right to produce enriched uranium for 10 years. Iran has agreed to reduce its stock of low-enriched uranium from 10,000 kg to 300 kg enriched at 3.67% for 15 years, and not to enrich uranium at more than 3.67% for at least 15 years. The Fordow enrichment site will be converted into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. The Arak heavy water reactor will not produce weapons grade plutonium and will be modernised.
A set of measures have been agreed to monitor the provisions of the joint plan of action and provisional application of the additional protocol. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be tasked with monitoring.
Iran will take part in international cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy. Another area of cooperation will be in the field of nuclear safety and security.
The measures have an application length of 10-15 years, depending on the activities, and a 25-year application for inspections of the uranium supply chain.
The lifting of the EU and US economic and financial nuclear-related sanctions will not take place on 30 June but once the IAEA has checked that Iran's commitments have been implemented. “This will undoubtedly take some time but I can't tell you how long at this stage”, said Catherine Ray, the spokesperson for High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Tuesday 7 April. The sanctions will be re-established if the agreement is not applied.
Agreement generally welcomed but criticised by Israel. European Parliament President Martin Schulz welcomed this “historic agreement” as “a major contribution to international security (which) increases mutual trust and eases the Iranian economy”. “Cooperation and dialogue have prevailed over confrontation and isolation”, he added. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the agreement on 5 April as “very bad”. “A better deal would roll back Iran's vast nuclear infrastructure” but not one centrifuge will be destroyed, Netanyahu stated. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)