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Business News/ News / World/  Celebration, caution after Iran accord
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Celebration, caution after Iran accord

Agreement still requires experts to work out difficult details before the self-imposed 30 June deadline

Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif after talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Photo: ReutersPremium
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif after talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. Photo: Reuters

Lausanne (Switzerland): Iran has signalled that it is ready to change course towards greater trade and economic integration with the global economy by reaching an agreement with six world powers on the contours of a nuclear accord.

The tentative agreement, reached on Thursday after eight days of talks in Switzerland, clears the way for negotiations on a settlement aimed at allaying Western concerns that Iran was seeking to build an atomic bomb and in return lift economic sanctions on the Islamic republic.

The agreement between Iran and six powers—the UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US—has “huge significance", said a nuclear and disarmament diplomat familiar with the negotiations.

“For Iran, the removal of nuclear-related sanctions will create economic relief and space to establish normal economic and financial ties with all countries," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

An accord would lead to the end of sanctions that have cut oil exports—that underpin Iran’s economy—by more than half over the past three years. Some UN Security Council sanctions would be gradually lifted, though others would remain in place, specifically those relating to nuclear proliferation.

On its part, Iran would shut more than two-thirds of its installed centrifuges capable of producing uranium that could be used to build a bomb, dismantle a reactor that could produce plutonium and accept intrusive verifications.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can carry out inspections “anywhere in the country" and “investigate suspicious sites or allegations of a covert enrichment facility", according to The New York Times.

Highly enriched uranium can be used to make a weapon, which the verifications aim to prevent, while low enriched uranium is used in power plants. Iran has insisted it wants the uranium only for a peaceful nuclear energy programme and denies it aimed to build an atomic bomb.

The framework is contingent on reaching an agreement by 30 June. All sanctions on Iran remain in place until a final deal.

To be sure, the implementation of such an agreement could test international diplomatic nerves in the coming years.

US President Barack Obama described the agreement as a “historic understanding with Iran" and compared it with nuclear arms control deals struck by his predecessors with the erstwhile Soviet Union that “made our world safer" during the Cold War.

He also cautioned, however, that “success is not guaranteed".

The deal still requires experts to work out difficult details before the self-imposed June deadline and diplomats said it could collapse at any time before then.

“We are not completely at the end of the road and the end of the road should be in June," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said. “Nothing is signed until everything is signed, but things are going in the right direction."

Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who both took risks to open the dialogue, will each have to sell the deal to sceptical conservatives at home.

On Friday, conservative clerics signalled their support, including that of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, whose authority exceeds that of the elected Rouhani.

In the weekly sermon at Tehran University, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani, a 78-year-old hardline cleric, said Khamenei backed the negotiating team. Emami-Kashani praised the negotiators as “firm, wise and calm", and congratulated Rouhani and foreign minister Javad Zarif.

Still, he spoke from behind a podium with a saying from the leader of Iran’s revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which read: “We will put America beneath our feet".

Iran would uphold its commitments only if the West did, Emami-Kashani said. “If you break a promise, then Iran will break its promise," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has the ear of the US opposition Republicans, fumed against an arrangement he said could lead to nuclear proliferation and war.

“This deal would legitimize Iran’s nuclear programme, bolster Iran’s economy, and increase Iran’s aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond," he said. “It would increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war."

Netanyahu on Friday said any final agreement between Iran and world powers must insist that Iran commit to recognizing Israel’s right to exist.

Iran’s other main foe in the region, Saudi Arabia, was more cautious, supporting the agreement in public, although its mistrust remains deep. It launched a bombing campaign a week ago against Iranian allies in Yemen.

France and Germany sounded cautious notes on Friday.

Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said it was too early to celebrate. But he also said Israel should study the deal more closely before opposing it.

Global oil prices, which have already fallen sharply in the past year, tumbled on Thursday on the prospect that Iran will eventually be able to restore its exports. Brent crude was off as much as 5% at one point before recovering.

Celebrations erupted in the Iranian capital after the deal was reached. Cars in Tehran honked horns as passengers clapped.

France’s Fabius said Iran’s economy stood to gain $150 billion in relief from the sanctions.

“You will have seen that there was a lot of positive reaction in the streets in Iran, and I think it’s real, not fabricated," he said. “The Iranians, the people, the youth are expecting something and that should be noted."

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Published: 04 Apr 2015, 12:19 AM IST
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