Iran nuke deal ends ‘manufactured crisis’
Print Edition
A DEAL with world powers ended a “manufactured crisis” over Iran’s nuclear program, its foreign minister said yesterday after negotiating the accord which drew furious objections from lawmakers in the United States.
US President Barack Obama faced a bruising battle to sell the deal in Washington as Congressional leaders queued up to denounce it.
In return for curbs on its nuclear program for at least 10 years, Iran will be freed from Western and UN sanctions that have crippled its economy.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who led Iran’s negotiating team over 18 days of talks that culminated in Tuesday’s deal, said on his return home that common ground had been found with the six powers of the US, China, Britain, Germany, Russia and France.
“We will take measures and they will do their part,” he told reporters at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport.
“It will happen in about four months,” he said of the formal implementation of the deal.
His comments came after a night of celebrations in Tehran where his name was chanted in the streets.
In Washington, however, the deal came under scrutiny.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said it was “likely to fuel a nuclear arms race around the world”.
But Zarif hit back at the deal’s biggest critic, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who branded the deal a “historic mistake.”
“Netanyahu kicked up a fuss as he is upset that Iran managed to get sanctions lifted and prevent a manufactured crisis,” Zarif said.
Iran has always denied seeking an atomic bomb and that stance was reiterated by President Hassan Rouhani after Tuesday’s agreement.
Soon after the deal was announced the White House launched a campaign to stop skeptics at home and abroad from derailing the accord.
US lawmakers have 60 days to review the agreement but Obama has vowed to use his presidential veto over any attempt to block it.
Under the deal, Iran will cut by about two-thirds the number of centrifuges — which can make fuel for nuclear power stations, or the core of a nuclear bomb — from about 19,000 to just over 6,000.
It also agreed to allow the UN nuclear watchdog controlled access to its military bases, an Iranian official said.
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