LAUSANNE // Iran and world powers said they had reached agreement Thursday on “key parameters” of a potentially historic deal aimed at preventing Tehran from building a nuclear bomb.
Reading out a joint statement, European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, hailed what she called a “decisive step” after more than a decade of negotiations.
She said the seven nations involved – the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, the UK and Iran – would now start writing the text of an accord ahead of a final deadline on June 30.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, then repeated the statement in Farsi.
Speaking from the White House shortly afterwards, US president Barack Obama said the framework agreement was “a good deal” that would, if fully implemented, prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon.
“Today, the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached an historic understanding with Iran,” Mr Obama said. “If this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies and our world safer,” he said.
Citing several agreed-upon restrictions on Iran’s enrichment of material that could be used to make an atomic bomb, Ms Mogherini said the country’s heavy water reactor would not produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Crucially for the Iranians, all EU and US sanctions related to its nuclear programme are to be rolled back after the UN nuclear agency confirms Tehran’s compliance with the deal.
After eight days of talks in the Swiss town of Lausanne, US secretary of state John Kerry tweeted that it was a “big day” and said the global powers and Iran “now have parameters to resolve major issues on nuclear programme. Back to work soon on a final deal”.
Mr Zarif said the agreement would show that “our programme is exclusively peaceful, has always been and always will remain exclusively peaceful”, while not hindering the country’s pursuit of nuclear energy for civilian purposes.
“Our facilities will continue,” he said. “We will continue enriching, we will continue research and development.”
He said a planned heavy water reactor would be modernised and that the Iranians would retain their key nuclear site, Fordo, which is buried deep underground.
In the joint statement, however, Ms Mogherini said that Fordo wouldn’t be a site for enrichment of uranium, which can be used for nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, Iranian media said the deal would see Tehran slash the number of its centrifuges to 6,000 from 19,000, including 1,000 at Fordo.
“We have taken a major step but are still some way away from where we want to be,” Mr Zarif added, describing Thursday’s preliminary step as a “win-win outcome.”
The aim before this round of talks began was to agree the main framework for a deal to be finalised by June 30 that reduces in scale Iran’s nuclear programme in return for relief from painful sanctions.
The P5+1 powers – the Security Council members plus Germany – hope this will make it virtually impossible for Iran to make nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian programme and end a crisis that has been raging for 12 years.
* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters
