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15 July 2015
- From the section Middle East
The UN Security Council will vote next week on a resolution endorsing the nuclear deal with Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says.
On his return to Tehran, Mr Zarif told reporters that the council would, for the first time, recognise a developing country’s uranium enrichment programme.
The deal, reached with six world powers in Vienna on Tuesday, would begin to be implemented by November, he added.
In return for an end to sanctions, Iran will limit its nuclear activities.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement proved that “constructive engagement works”, while his US counterpart Barack Obama called it a step towards a “more hopeful world”.
Mr Obama also sought to reassure Americans and allies in the Middle East, who fear the accord will embolden Iran and fail to stop it gaining nuclear weapons.
‘Victory for Iran’
“We began the talks in a situation when the Security Council had termed the peaceful nuclear programme of Islamic Republic of Iran as a matter of concern through its oppressive resolutions,” Mr Zarif told a news conference at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on Wednesday.
“Today, these talks have concluded in a situation when the Security Council – for the first time in its history – will give official recognition to a developing country’s enrichment programme through a resolution next week.”
The Security Council passed six resolutions between 2006 and 2010 requiring Iran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used for civilian purposes, but also to build nuclear bombs.
Diplomats told the Reuters news agency that the US would circulate a draft text on Wednesday that would terminate the previous resolutions but enshrine a mechanism for the sanctions they included to automatically “snap back” if Iran breached its commitments.
The five permanent members of the Security Council who could veto any resolution – the US, UK, France, Russia and China – were part of the so-called P5+1 group of world powers that signed the deal with Iran, along with Germany.
“We hope that more or less within four months measures taken by both sides show results and implementation of the deal begins,” Mr Zarif said.
President Rouhani meanwhile told a cabinet meeting that Iran had not “surrendered”. “The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran. It’s an achievement that Iran won’t be called a world threat anymore,” he added.
Hours earlier, Republicans in the US Congress lined up to condemn the deal.
Could US Congress torpedo the deal?
- It has 60 days to review the agreement
- During that time, President Obama cannot lift the sanctions Congress has imposed on Iran
- Congress can reject the deal, and keep the sanctions in place, but Mr Obama can veto that
- Congress would need a two-thirds majority to overturn the veto, which is unlikely
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The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, said it would only “embolden” Iran.
“Instead of stopping the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, this deal is likely to fuel a nuclear arms race around the world,” he warned.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile denounced what he called a “stunning historic mistake”.
He stressed that Israel would not be bounded by the deal, suggesting military strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme remained an option. “We will always defend ourselves,” he added.
Mr Obama insisted the accord ensured “every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off” for Iran. “This deal is not built on trust – it is built on verification,” he said.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, told the BBC he was confident that its inspectors would be able to “detect any diversion or misuse of nuclear material in a timely manner”.
