Details continued to emerge throughout the day regarding the likely terms of an interim agreement between the international community and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, amid increasing skepticism from U.S. policymakers that the deal being worked out would substantially check the Islamic republic’s ability to sneak across the nuclear finish line. Reports were published late in the day outlining a potential Geneva meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
Word of Kerry’s impending arrival is the strongest sign so far of an agreement on a first step toward a comprehensive final deal. Such a deal would be a historic move — a first in 35 years of strained relations between the United States and Iran.
The Guardian today reported on statements from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi indicating that such an agreement would, per the P5+1, be done based on “the framework of Iran’s proposal.” Meanwhile NBC News described Zarif as having ‘reiterated… that Iran would never agree to completely suspend its nuclear program,’ a gesture toward the Islamic republic’s oft-repeated claim that the Non-Proliferation Treaty guarantees Tehran the right to enrich uranium. That claim is, as a legal matter, straightforwardly false, and several countries have built nuclear programs using imported uranium not enriched domestically. Analysts have moreover emphasized that permitting Tehran to continue spinning centrifuges would provide the regime with the necessary ambiguity to go nuclear once a political decision to do so has been made. Last night Reuters quoted a senior U.S. Senate aid describing the Obama administration’s likely offer to Iran.
A senior aide to a U.S. senator briefed by the White House and State Department said Washington would offer to work with Iran in a six-month confidence-building period. During that time, Washington would offer Tehran relaxed restrictions on Iran’s funds held in overseas accounts. The Obama administration could also ease sanctions on trade in gold and petrochemicals. In exchange, Iran would stop enriching uranium to 20 percent and convert its existing stockpile of 20 percent uranium to an oxide form suitable for processing into reactor fuel and take other measures to slow the program. The aide said the concessions being sought would “neither freeze nor set back” Iran’s nuclear program and that the Senate would have to act immediately to impose further sanctions on Iran.
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