Iran and P5+1 Reach Interim Deal: Civil Services Mentor Magazine - January 2014

IRAN AND P5+1 REACH INTERIM DEAL

One of the thorniest disputes between Iran and the international community is over Iran’s nuclear programme. Here is an explainer to the crisis.

Why is there a crisis?

In short, because world powers suspect Iran has not been honest about its nuclear programme and is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Iran says it has the right to nuclear energy - and stresses that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

What led to the crisis?

Iran’s nuclear programme became public in 2002, when an opposition group revealed secret activity including a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and a heavy-water reactor at Arak. The Iranian government subsequently agreed to inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). But the IAEA was unable to confirm Iran’s assertions that its nuclear programme was exclusively for peaceful purposes and that it had not sought to develop nuclear weapons.

This led the US and its European allies to press Iran to stop enriching uranium, which can be used for civilian nuclear purposes but also - if enriched to 90% purity - to build nuclear bombs. However, the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 halted any progress in talks, and the IAEA referred Iran to the UN Security Council for failing to comply with its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Safeguards Agreement. Since then, the Security Council has adopted six resolutions requiring Iran to stop enriching uranium, some imposing sanctions. The US and EU have imposed additional sanctions on Iranian oil exports and banks since 2012, crippling Iran’s economy. Despite this, Iran continues to enrich uranium. In 2009, it disclosed the existence of a new underground facility at Fordo.

There have been multiple rounds of negotiations between Iran and the so-called P5+1 - the five UN Security Council permanent members US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. For years the two sides failed to make headway. But the mood changed after the election of Hassan Rouhani as president in 2013.

What have Iran and the P5+1 agreed?

On 24 November 2013, negotiators reached an interim deal after intensive talks in Geneva. It marked the biggest breakthrough in about a decade of on-off meetings. Iran agreed to curb its enrichment activities in return for an easing of some sanctions. This “first step” agreement will apply for six months, giving time for a “comprehensive solution” to the crisis to be found. Under the interim deal, Iran agreed to halt uranium enrichment above the
level of 5% purity, reduce its existing stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, not increase the number of centrifuges (used to purify uranium), suspend work at its reactor at Arak (currently under construction), and give UN inspectors more information and greater access to enrichment facilities.

In return, the world powers agreed to “limited, temporary... reversible” sanctions relief. This includes allowing Iran to trade in gold and precious metals, suspending some sanctions on its motor industry, permitting petrochemical exports and giving Iran access to $4.2bn from oil sales. The US says the measures could be worth $7bn in revenue to Iran. They also agreed not to impose any new nuclear-related sanctions for six months.

Critically for Iran, its chief negotiator Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran had not given up its right to enrich uranium - one of the sticking points which had held up a deal. The US however denied any such right had been conceded.

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