Iran has agreed to curb some of its
nuclear activities in return for about $7bn in sanctions relief, after
days of intense talks in Geneva, British Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The deal will last for six months, while a permanent agreement is sought.
United States President Barack Obama welcomed the deal, saying it would “help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon”.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said
Iran’s right to uranium enrichment had been recognised. Israel, however,
described the agreement as a “historic mistake”.
World powers suspect Iran’s nuclear
programme is secretly aiming at developing a nuclear bomb – a charge
Iran has consistently denied.
In a nationwide broadcast on Sunday,
President Rouhani repeated that his country would never seek a nuclear
weapon He hailed the deal, saying it met one of Iran’s fundamental
principles.
“No matter what interpretations are given, Iran’s right to enrichment has been recognised,” he said.
Iran agreed to halt enrichment to
medium-grade (20 per cent) purity, which can be further enriched to
weapons-grade level relatively easily, and give better access to UN
inspectors.
Tehran insists it must be allowed to enrich uranium to use in power stations.
Both the Americans and the Iranians appear to have come away from this interim deal smiling.
Both can say that they have received
concessions but their practical effect will be limited. The real success
here is that the ground has been prepared for further substantive
talks.
The relief from sanctions has been targeted and specific. The US stresses that existing sanctions will continue to be enforced.
Iran is to a large extent freezing any
further progress in its nuclear activities but many of its centrifuge
cascades have not been operational; it has actually been limiting its
enrichment work for whatever reason for some time; and the Arak facility
is still some way from being operational.
The deal comes just months after Iran
elected Rouhani – regarded as a relative moderate – as its new
president, succeeding the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
It has also been backed by Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in nuclear matters.
After four days of negotiations,
representatives of the so-called P5+1 group of nations – the US, the UK,
Russia, China, France and Germany – reached the agreement with Iran in
the early hours of Sunday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the agreement would make the region safer for its allies, including Israel.
But the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told his cabinet it was a “historic mistake” and that his
country reserved the right to defend itself.
“Today the world became a
much more dangerous place because the most dangerous regime in the world
made a significant step in obtaining the most dangerous weapons in the
world,” he said.
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