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Iran will get access to $4.2 billion in foreign exchange as part of
an agreement under which it will curb its nuclear program in exchange
for limited sanctions relief, a Western diplomat said on Sunday.
The diplomat provided no further details of the agreement, which was
struck after four days of negotiations between Iran and six major
powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
The Washington Post reported
Iran would be allowed to produce limited enrichment of uranium under
tight restrictions and heavy monitoring. The Associated Press quoted an
unidentified senior Obama administration official as saying the deal
does not include recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium.
The Post said the final language of the deal still has to be worked out,
hoping that it would include wording that acknowledges the right of all
countries to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
The Post also said the two sides "continued to haggle" over the exact
details of which sanctions would be lifted but said the hardest-hitting
sanctions against Iran's oil and banking sectors would remain at least
temporarily.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani hailed the agreement, saying it would "open new horizons," Agence France-Presse reported.
Iran is expected to get limited sanctions relief on gold, petrochemicals
and autos as part of the agreement, Reuters reported. CNN said the deal
was a six-month interim deal and sanctions would be reimposed quickly
if Iran was caught cheating.
The New York Times said
Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium to a high level and to do
that would "dismantle the links between networks of centrifuges." Any
uranium that had been enriched further would be diluted or converted so
it could not be used for arms.
Chief negotiator and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton announced
that a deal had been reached without giving any further details shortly
after the talks had dragged into a fifth day. It was signed at a 3 a.m.
ceremony in Geneva's Palace of Nations.
"We have reached agreement between E3+3 and Iran," Ashton's spokesman
Michael Mann quoted her as saying on Twitter, without giving any
details.
The last minute deal came after it appeared talks were on the verge of
breakdown. Foreign ministers had struggled Saturday to nail down a
landmark nuclear deal, with US Secretary of State John Kerry announcing
his imminent departure and Iran's chief negotiator downbeat.
As talks in Geneva went late into an unscheduled fourth day, Kerry's
spokesman said Washington's top diplomat would be flying to London on
Sunday morning — with or without a deal.
Iranian chief negotiator Abbas Araqchi said he doubted that Tehran
and the P5+1 world powers — the United States, Britain, France, China,
Russia and Germany — could reach an accord by the end of Saturday.
"Intense and difficult negotiations are under way and it is not clear
whether we can reach an agreement tonight," Fars news agency had quoted
Araqchi as saying.
The talks, mostly between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif and P5+1 chief negotiator Ashton, are aimed at securing a freeze
on parts of Iran's nuclear programme in return for limited sanctions
relief.
The arrival of Kerry and other P5+1 foreign ministers late Friday and
on Saturday had raised hopes, after three long days of intense
negotiations among lower-level officials, that a breakthrough was in
sight.
However the talks continued to drag on inside the smart Geneva hotel late Saturday.
"We have now entered a very difficult stage," Zarif told state television.
He insisted he would not bow to "excessive demands," without detailing the obstacles.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on his arrival that the
talks "remain very difficult" and that "we are not here because things
are necessarily finished."
Late on Saturday, Kerry went into a three-way meeting with Ashton and
Zarif for the second time, a US official said following a meeting among
the powers' foreign ministers.
Two weeks ago, the ministers had jetted in seeking to sign on the
dotted line, only to fail as cracks appeared among the P5+1 nations —
fissures that officials say are now repaired.
But a second fruitless effort in Geneva in as many weeks would not
only be an diplomatic embarrassment: If there is no deal, or at least an
agreement to meet again soon and keep the diplomatic momentum going,
the standoff could enter a new, potentially dangerous phase.
Since being elected in June, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has
raised big hopes that, after a decade of rising tensions over Tehran's
nuclear program, a solution might be within reach.
But if his diplomatic push fails to bear fruit, Tehran could resume
its expansion of nuclear activities, leading to ever more painful
sanctions — and possible military action by Israeli or the United
States.
Mark Hibbs, an analyst from the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, said Kerry's imminent departure might not necessarily be a bad
sign.
Kerry leaving "might set a deadline and focus people's minds,
especially if things this afternoon are bogging down in the details,"
Hibbs told AFP.
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but has failed to allay
the international community's suspicions it is aimed at acquiring
atomic weapons.
The six powers want Iran to stop enriching uranium to a fissile
purity of 20 percent, close to weapons-grade, while allowing it to
continue enrichment to lower levels. That would be a step back from
successive UN Security Council resolutions that have called for Iran to
halt all uranium enrichment.
The powers also want Tehran to stop construction on a new reactor at
Arak and to grant the International Atomic Energy Agency more intrusive
inspection rights.
In return they are offering Iran minor and "reversible" relief from
painful sanctions, including unlocking several billion dollars in oil
revenues and easing some trade restrictions.
This "first phase" interim deal is meant to build trust and ease
tensions while negotiators push on for a final accord to end once and
for all fears that Tehran will acquire an atomic bomb.
A major sticking point has been Iran's demand — again expressed by
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week — that the powers
formally recognize it has a "right" to enrich uranium.
Getting an agreement palatable to hardliners in the United States and
in the Islamic republic — as well as in Israel, which is not party to
the talks — is tough.
Israel's Haaretz daily reported that over the last three days,
Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz spoke by phone with two of
the P5+1's foreign ministers to press Israel's concerns.
In Washington there is a push by lawmakers to ignore President Barack
Obama's pleas and pass yet more sanctions on Iran if there is no deal —
or one seen as too soft.
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