Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on an historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, diplomats confirmed. The deal apparently allows Iran to continue limited enrichment of uranium.
The Washington Post reports:
Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on an historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, diplomats confirmed.
The deal was reached after four days of marathon bargaining and an 11th-hour intervention by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry and other foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and China, the sources said.
The agreement, sealed at 3 a.m. signing ceremony in Geneva’s Palace of Nations, requires Iran to halt or scale back parts of it nuclear infrastructure, the first such pause in more than a decade.
“We have reached an agreement,” Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a Twitter posting.
“We have reached an agreement,” echoed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a separate posting.…
Israel, Saudia Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf States are likely to oppose the agreement as are Syria's rebel factions and Turkey.