Iran will honor nuclear deal, says president
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IRAN will honor a framework agreement for a nuclear accord provided world powers uphold their end of the bargain, President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday, hailing what he called a historic deal.
“We don’t cheat. We are not two-faced,” Rouhani said in a live televised address. “If we’ve given a promise ... we will take action based on that promise. Of course, that depends on the other side taking action on their promises too.”
The tentative accord, struck on Thursday after eight days of talks in Switzerland, clears the way for a settlement to allay Western fears that Iran could build an atomic bomb, with economic sanctions on Tehran being lifted in return.
He added that world powers now accepted Iran could enrich uranium on its own soil, something he said they had once argued posed a threat to the region.
The accord marks the most significant step toward rapprochement between Washington and Tehran since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
“Today is a day that will remain in the historic memory of the Iranian nation,” Rouhani said.
“Some think that we must either fight the world or surrender to world powers. We say it is neither of those, there is a third way. We can have cooperation with the world.”
Well-wishers hailed Iran’s nuclear negotiators as they returned to Tehran yesterday from reaching a potentially historic framework deal with world powers, but Israel warned it was a “very dangerous” step.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday he and his Cabinet are united in “strongly opposing” an emerging framework agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and demanded that any final deal contain Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
Iran and six world powers announced a series of understandings on Thursday, with a final agreement to be reached by June 30. A final deal is meant to cut significantly into Iran’s bomb-capable technology while giving Tehran quick access to assets and markets blocked by international sanctions.
Netanyahu yesterday convened his Cabinet for a special session to discuss the emerging framework, reached after a week of grueling negotiations in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Netanyahu said afterward that “Israel will not accept an agreement which allows a country that vows to annihilate us to develop nuclear weapons, period.”
However, he also acknowledged the possibility of a final agreement being reached, saying that such a deal must “include a clear and unambiguous Iranian recognition of Israel’s right to exist.”
The commitments announced on Thursday, if implemented, would substantially pare back some Iranian nuclear assets for a decade and restrict others for an additional five years. According to a US document listing those commitments, Tehran is ready to reduce its number of centrifuges, the machines that can spin uranium gas to levels used in nuclear warheads.
Of the nearly 20,000 centrifuges Iran now has installed or running at its main enrichment site, the country would be allowed to operate just over 5,000. Much of its enriched stockpiles would be neutralized. A planned reactor would be reconstructed so it can’t produce weapons-grade plutonium.
US President Barack Obama welcomed the “historic understanding” with the Islamic republic after decades of hostility, warning like other leaders that work remains to finalize a highly complex agreement by June 30.
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