THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT THE JCPOA
wh.gov/iran-deal
What You Need to Know: JCPOA Packet
The Details of the JCPOA
What They’re Saying About the JCPOA
Letters and Statements of Support
Appendix
• FAQs: All the Answers on JCPOA
• Timely Access to Iran’s Nuclear Program
• JCPOA Does Not Simply Delay an
Iranian Nuclear Weapon
• Tools to Counter Iranian Missile and Arms Activity
• Sanctions That Remain In Place Under the JCPOA
• Sanctions Relief — Countering Iran’s Regional Activities
• JCPOA Exceeds WINEP Benchmarks
• JCPOA Meeting (and Exceeding)
the Lausanne Framework
• National Security Experts and Former Ocials
• Regional Editorials: State by State
• What the World is Saying About the JCPOA
• Iran Project Letter
• Over 100 Ambassador letter to POTUS
• Atlantic Council Iran Task Force Statement
• Letter from former Diplomats — including five former
Ambassadors to Israel
• US Conference of Catholic Bishops Letter
• Statement by the President on Iran
July 14, 2015
• Key Excerpts of the JCPOA
• Secretary Kerry Press Availability on
Nuclear Deal with Iran
July 14, 2015
• Secretary Kerry and Secretary Moniz
Washington Post op-ed
July 22, 2015
• SFRC Hearing Testimony, SEC Kerry
July 23, 2015
• SFRC Hearing Testimony, SEC Lew
July 23, 2015
• SFRC Hearing Testimony, SEC Moniz
July 23, 2015
• SASC Hearing Testimony, SEC Carter
July 29, 2015
THE DETAILS
OF THE JCPOA
After 20 months of intensive negotiations,
the U.S. and our international partners have
reached an historic deal that will verifiably
prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The United States refused to take a bad deal, pressing for a deal that met every single one of
our bottom lines. That’s exactly what we got.
Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, this deal:
The JCPOA is incredibly detailed. Congress is reviewing the JCPOA over a 60-day period.
The following lays out the details, in-depth analysis, and public statements on the deal that
will ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful moving forward.
• Cuts o all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon,
including a covert pathway
• Puts in place vigorous, intrusive, and unprecedented
transparency measures that are necessary to verify that
Iran cannot pursue a weapon
• Ensures sanctions can be snapped backinto place if Iran
violates the deal
Blocking the Pathways to
a Nuclear Weapon
This deal cuts o Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon with plutonium.
Iran will ship out all spent fuel for present and future power and research nuclear reactors for 15
years and has committed to rely on light water for future nuclear reactors.
This deal cuts o Iran’s ability to pursue a nuclear weapon through uranium enrichment.
• Iran will have to remove two-thirds of its centrifuges,
which are used to enrich uranium. All of the pipework
that connects these centrifuges and allows them to
enrich uranium will be dismantled, removed, and kept
under continuous surveillance by the IAEA.
• For a decade, Iran will only be able to operate roughly
5,000 centrifuges at Natanz. Iran will not be able to
enrich uranium or keep any fissile materials at Fordow
for 15 years.
• For the first decade, Iran will only be allowed to use
its first generation, IR-1 centrifuges for enrichment
purposes. It will have to remove its 1,000 IR-2M
centrifuges currently installed at Natanz and place them
in IAEA-monitored storage. There will also be strict
limitations on research and development. For 10 years,
Iran will not be able to produce enriched uranium with
any of its advanced centrifuges.
• Iran will have to reduce its stockpile of enriched
uranium by 98 percent. To put that in perspective, Iran
currently has enough raw materials to produce about
10 nuclear weapons. When reduced by 98 percent, Iran
won’t have enough enriched uranium for even a single
nuclear weapon. This cap on Iran’s stockpile will last for
15 years.
• With this deal, Iran’s so-called “breakout timeline” —
the amount of time it would take Iran to acquire enough
fissile material for one nuclear weapon if Iran breaks
its commitments — will be extended from roughly the
current 2-3 months, to at least one year during the first
decade.
• Iran also has a separate “breakout timeline” of at
least a year to build an actual warhead capable of
delivering a nuclear payload. This deal goes beyond the
Lausanne framework in ensuring commitments against
weaponization by Iran, which has committed to not
engage in activities, including R&D, that could be related
to the development of a nuclear explosive device.
The core of Iran’s heavy water reactor at Arak will be
removed and filled with concrete so it can never be used
again. The United States will be part of the international
partnership that will approve the plan to redesign and
rebuild the reactor so that it will not produce weapons-
grade plutonium.
For the next 15 years, Iran will not be able to build any
additional heavy water reactors; will not be able to
accumulate excess heavy water; and will not be able to
conduct reprocessing.
JCPOA is Based on Verification, Not Trust
This deal includes the most comprehensive and intrusive verification regime ever negotiated.
• There will be 24/7 monitoring of Iran’s key
declared nuclear facilities, including Natanz,
Fordow, and Arak.
• International inspectors will have access to Iran’s
entire nuclear supply chain — its uranium mines
and mills; its conversion facility; its centrifuge
manufacturing and storage facilities; and its other
declared nuclear sites — critical elements which will
be under watchful eye for 25 years. As a result, Iran
would need to construct an entire covert supply chain
to pursue a covert nuclear
weapons program.
• A dedicated procurement channel will be established
to monitor and approve, on a case-by-case basis, the
supply, sale, or transfer to Iran of certain nuclear-
related and dual-use materials and technology — an
additional transparency measure to prevent diversion
of sensitive goods to a covert program.
• Iran has agreed to steps with the IAEA to address the
possible military dimensions of Iran’s past program
— or PMD. Iran will not receive sanctions relief until
Iran has completed those steps. The IAEA will have
appropriate access to Parchin.
• Going forward, Iran will implement the Additional
Protocol, which ensures the IAEA can seek access
to nany undeclared suspicious location. Put simply,
the IAEA will have access when it needs it, and where
it needs it. If the IAEA has concerns, no site will be
considered o limits in order to address them and this
could include military sites.
• The JCPOA will also require that Iran grant the IAEA
access to any requested locations within 24 days if a
majority of our partners agree it is necessary.
This means we can achieve the access IAEA inspectors
need if the United States and our European allies are
in agreement.
Snapping Back Sanctions on Iran
Iran will not receive any new sanctions relief until it verifiably completes important steps to
rollback its program, and we can snap sanctions back into place if Iran violates the deal.
• Reports of a “signing bonus” were false. Iran must
complete its key nuclear steps before it begins to
receive sanctions relief beyond the limited relief
provided for under the JPOA. We anticipate that it will
take Iran from 6 months to a year to complete these
key steps.
• The JCPOA allows us to snap sanctions back into place
if Iran violates the deal.
• Meanwhile, we will be keeping in place other unilateral
sanctions that relate to non-nuclear issues, such as
support for terrorism and human rights abuses.
• The UN Security Council resolutions that imposed
sanctions on Iran will be replaced by a new UN Security
Council resolution that will last for a decade. For
the first decade of the deal, we can snap back these
multilateral sanctions if Iran violates the deal — a
snapback that cannot be vetoed by Russia or China.
In addition, for years 11-15, the P5+1 has agreed to
preserve this snapback mechanism if Iran violates
the deal.
• This new UN Security Council resolution will
re-establish important sanctions restricting the
transfer of sensitive nuclear technologies and keep
in place sanctions on ballistic missiles for 8 years and
conventional arms for 5 years.
Taken in its entirety, this is the impact the
historic JCPOA will have on Iran’s ability to
obtain a nuclear weapon:
FAQs: All the Answers on the JCPOA
No other approach ensures the strict limits and
unprecedented inspections we were able to negotiate. The
JCPOA cuts o all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon.
And it ensures the vigorous inspections and transparency
necessary to verify that Iran cannot cheat and pursue a
nuclear weapon without us knowing and having time to act.
It ensures that sanctions can snap back into place if Iran
violates the deal. And it is long-term, including significant
elements that will be permanent.
You don’t have to take our word for it — ask our allies in the
United Kingdom, Germany, and France, who have been with
us every step of the way at the negotiating table. Ask the
dozens of countries that have already come out in support of
this deal, the UN, and the Vatican. Ask the numerous former
Israeli military, intelligence, and security ocials, who are all
saying that this deal makes Israel safer. The world supports
this deal.
Is this a “bad deal”?
No. This is a good deal — the JCPOA is strong, verifiable, and long-term.
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It doesn’t just halt the progress and roll back key aspects of
Iran’s program, as the JPOA did, it requires permanent steps
be taken to verifiably ensure that Iran cannot get a nuclear
weapon. The Arak heavy water reactor is just one example:
Under the JPOA, Iran could not do further work on Arak;
under the JCPOA, Iran has to physically remove the core, fill
it with concrete, and fundamentally change the design so it
won’t be producing plutonium that could be used in a bomb.
The critics were wrong once before. Many who opposed the
interim deal have now come around to acknowledging that
our negotiators got a good deal. We held out for a deal that
met all of our key objectives, and we got it. The deal also
includes the most comprehensive verification regime ever
negotiated, as well as a means to “snap back” multilateral and
domestic sanctions in the event Iran decides to cheat.
Shouldn’t we have just walked away from the table and kept the interim deal in place?
The final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) goes leaps and
bounds beyond the interim JPOA in terms of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear
program and far-reaching transparency measures.
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Hundreds of dedicated professionals from the Departments
of State, Energy (including our leading national labs),
Treasury, the Intelligence Community, and other agencies
worked tirelessly over the past few years and more to test
every part of this deal and make sure that it did exactly what
the President demanded — that it eectively cut o all Iran’s
pathways to enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
And we made clear to the Iranians — both publicly and
privately — that we would walk away if we could not get a deal
that met our objectives.
Did we just take whatever deal we could get, because we wanted this deal too much?
If we wanted a bad deal, we could have had one a long time ago. But the
President and our negotiators insisted on waiting until Iran made the tough
decisions that were needed to get the good deal that we got.
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But here’s what we do have: a deal that guarantees 24/7
monitoring of Iran’s nuclear facilities and that ensures timely
access to any undeclared suspicious locations, with as little as
24-hour notice or a maximum timeline of 24 days to resolve
disputes that could arise over access. Iran knows we can
detect nuclear material even if it tried to sanitize a site and we
will have eyes on any suspicious facility in case Iran tried to
play any cat-and-mouse games.
Aren’t “anytime, anywhere” inspections the only way to ensure eective verification?
No country in the world today permits ‘anytime, anywhere’ inspections — this
is a false standard that the IAEA does not employ in any country.
And you can’t destroy knowledge that a country already
has. Iran mastered uranium enrichment long before this
Administration began, and our goal was always to prevent
Iran from using this knowledge to build a bomb.
You can’t sanction (or even bomb) that knowledge away. Our
policy is one based in reality – one that will result in fewer
centrifuges, not more.
Why is Iran allowed any uranium enrichment?
The “no enrichment” policy under the previous Administration failed.
It resulted in Iran going from 164 centrifuges to 19,000 centrifuges.
Put simply, under this deal, there is a permanent prohibition
on Iran ever having a nuclear weapons program and a
permanent inspections regime that goes beyond any previous
inspections regime in Iran. This deal provides the IAEA the
means to make sure Iran isn’t doing so, both through JCPOA-
specific verification tools, some of which last up to 25 years,
and through the Additional Protocol that lasts indefinitely.
In addition, Iran made commitments in this deal that include
prohibitions on key research and development activities that
it would need to design and construct a nuclear weapon.
Those commitments have no end date.
Doesn’t this deal sunset?
And if it does, doesn’t that mean Iran can have a nuclear weapon then?
No. Under this deal as well as under the Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran is never
allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
In reality, walking away from this deal and letting Iran get
even closer to a nuclear weapon would make a regional arms
race more likely. Any motivation for another Middle East
state to have its own nuclear deterrent against Iran would be
greater without a deal. In a “no-deal” scenario, Iran’s nuclear
program could advance much more quickly without this
enhanced transparency — a scenario that is much more likely
to spark regional fears of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Won’t this deal create a regional arms race?
No, an Iran with a nuclear weapon is what would make the region and the
world a more dangerous place.
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While some of our P5 partners wanted these restrictions
lifted immediately, we pushed back and were successful in
keeping them for 5 and 8 more years or until the IAEA reaches
its broader conclusion. And even after those restrictions are
ultimately lifted, we have strong multilateral and unilateral
tools, including sanctions, to continue to restrict Iranian
conventional arms and missile-related transfers. We have
strong support from the international community on these
issues. That combined with the size of the U.S. economy, the
power of our financial system, and the reach of U.S. unilateral
measures gives us enormous leverage to work with other
countries to enforce restrictions on Iranian missile and arms
activity. All of the other multilateral and unilateral tools that
remain in place are in no way impacted by the JCPOA, in any
phase of its implementation.
If we’re lifting the arms embargo in 5 years and missile restrictions in 8 years, doesn’t
that mean the U.S. has given up on countering Iran’s destabilizing activities?
No. These arms and missile restrictions were put in place because of Iran’s
nuclear activities. These restrictions will stay in place for years to come .
First, the $150 billion figure is entirely o base: the Treasury
Department estimates that, should Iran complete its key
nuclear steps and receive sanctions relief, Iran will be able to
freely access about a third of that figure in overseas foreign
reserves — a little over $50 billion. Further, we will continue
to aggressively enforce sanctions against Iran’s support
for terrorism, human rights abuses, missile program, and
destabilizing activities in the region. Secondly, money Iran
receives from sanctions relief is likely to be directed primarily
towards pressing economic needs given the more than half a
trillion dollars in investment and government obligations Iran
faces. Don’t forget it was these economic needs at home that
helped bring Iran to the table, and President Rouhani will be
under intense pressure to deliver results at home. Further,
a nuclear-armed Iran would be a much greater terrorist
threat to the region than an Iran that has access to additional
amounts of its own money.
Won’t Iran get $150 billion from sanctions relief, and won’t that money go straight
toward terrorist activity in the region?
No.
According to the July 27 Public Policy Polling: 54% support
the Iran deal. According to the July 28 GBA Strategies/J
Street Poll: 60% of Jewish Americans want their Member
of Congress to approve the deal. According to the July 20
WashPost/ABC Poll: 56% support the deal. According to the
July 23 Jewish Journal Poll: 53% of Jewish Americans believe
Congress should vote to APPROVE the deal. And the more
Americans learn about the deal, the more they like it — a
trajectory that makes sense, because this is a good deal for
America and for the world.
Don’t most Americans oppose this deal?
No. Most Americans Support the Iran deal.
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Our sanctions against Iran were eective because they
enjoyed broad, coordinated international cooperation. Iran’s
major trading partners and oil customers adhered to our
sanctions – at significant cost to themselves – because we
oered a genuine diplomatic path forward. It is unrealistic
to think that additional sanctions pressure would force Iran
to capitulate – and impractical to believe that we could get
our international partners to impose such pressure after
turning down a deal that they (including the UK, France, and
Germany) believe is a good one. Our allies have been clear
about this. Consider the UK Ambassador to the U.S. Peter
Westmacott’s comment for example: “If we were to walk
away or if the Congress was to make it impossible for the
agreement to be implemented…then I think the international
community would be pretty reluctant, frankly, to contemplate
a ratcheting up further of sanctions against Iran.” To walk
away would isolate the United States and damage our
standing in the world, setting America on an uncertain path
without the support of the international community.
Shouldn’t we just go back to more sanctions?
The rest of the world will go along with us.
That is a fantasy scenario with no basis in reality.
We will continue to call for the release of Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Jason Rezaian, and for
Iran’s help in locating Robert Levinson. We will not cease until we bring them home.
Why didn’t this deal ensure the release of American citizens held in Iran?
The negotiations have been about one issue and one only: addressing Iran’s
nuclear program. We would never want to tie the fate of these American
citizens to a political negotiation that we knew may or may not have succeeded.
And all U.S. sanctions pertaining to them will absolutely
remain in eect and will be vigorously enforced. The United
States will maintain sanctions on the IRGC, the Qods Force,
its leadership, and its entire network of front companies – and
the JCPOA has no eect on those sanctions whatsoever.
Further, these sanctions are much more powerful because
they also target third party entities, meaning that foreign
banks that conduct business for or on behalf of the Qods
Force or Soleimani will risk being cut o from the U.S.
financial system. In addition to U.S. sanctions, the E.U. will
continue to list Soleimani and the IRGC-QF under other, non-
nuclear sanctions authorities.
Is the U.S. delisting Qassam Soleimani and the IRGC under the JCPOA?
No. Qassem Soleimani and other IRGC ocials and entities are not being
delisted by the United States; They will remain designated because of their
support for terrorism and other destabilizing activities.
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Iran gets nothing until the IAEA verifies it has taken the
key nuclear steps outlined under the JCPOA, aside from a
continuation of the limited relief it has received under the
JPOA for the past 18 months. If and when Iran completes
those nuclear steps and is able to repatriate some of its own
locked-up money, the Treasury Department estimates that
Iran will be able to freely access slightly more than half this
amount — a little over $50 billion.
Did Iran receive a $100 billion signing bonus with this deal?
No. There is no signing bonus.
The moral authority that comes from making a genuine eort to solve this issue diplomatically
kept the international community united with us.
Was America negotiating from a point of weakness?
No. This was a triumph of American diplomacy and U.S. leadership in the
world, backed up, as the President has said all along, by our economic
and military strengths.
For the non-public JCPOA documents in our possession, we
have provided access to Congress in an appropriate setting.
And everything needed to prevent Iran from acquiring a
nuclear weapon is spelled out within the JCPOA, which is
publicly available for the world to see. Separately, Iran and the
IAEA signed an agreement on July 14 on the way forward on
PMD. This agreement has two attachments (called “separate
arrangements”), one of which is an arrangement for Parchin.
These are not public documents. The Administration was
not provided them by the IAEA and therefore has not shared
them with the Congress.
Why are there secret “side” deals that Congress doesn’t know about?
There are no secret “side” deals between the P5+1 and Iran.
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We won’t for a second take our eye o the ball on any of the anti-Israel actions and rhetoric
we see from Iran, and now we can focus on countering those without the threat of an Iranian
nuclear weapon.
Has the United States betrayed Israel on the Iran deal?
No. Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad, and this deal is the best
way to ensure that Iran will never be able to threaten Israel with a
nuclear weapon.
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Not only meeting every aspect of those parameters but
surpassing them. Additional constraints on weaponization,
uranium and plutonium metallurgy, other enrichment R&D,
use of heavy water which further restricts Iran from gaining
even the expertise it would need to develop a nuclear weapon
– we got all of this and more in the final comprehensive deal
(the JCPOA).
Why didn’t the deal stick to the framework announced in Lausanne?
It did. In fact, the Lausanne parameters alone already represented a good
deal, and the JCPOA goes even further.
We have reassured our partners that we will not impose
sanctions retroactively for business with Iran before
snapback occurs, but we have been equally clear with our
partners that if snapback does occur, there are no exemptions
from our sanctions for long-term contracts. As we always
have, we will consult closely with our partners to ensure that
Iran would pay the price for non-compliance.
Will companies that sign contracts with Iran be able to continue that business even if
Iran violates the JCPOA and snapback occurs, because of a “grandfather clause”?
No. There is no “grandfather clause” in the JCPOA.
The JCPOA is designed to help bring Iran’s nuclear security
and safety practices in line with those used by other peaceful
nuclear programs around the world. It’s in the interest of all
countries that nuclear material be safeguarded from theft
and terrorist attacks, so any training provided by the IAEA or
others will be solely for that purpose.
Does the deal require the P5+1 to defend Iran’s nuclear program from attack?
No. No one has in any way committed to “defend” Iran’s nuclear facilities.
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JCPOA Ensures Timely Access
to Iran’s Nuclear Program
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commits Iran to a comprehensive
monitoring regime covering all Iranian nuclear activities and will verify the peaceful nature
of Iran’s nuclear program. Many of these commitments will last decades, and some have
no end date. The new access commitments Iran will undertake upon implementation of the
JCPOA will provide the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with appropriate access
where needed, when needed to verify Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA.
Continuous Access to Nuclear Activities. This deal ensures
continuous monitoring of Iran’s key declared nuclear
facilities. Not only will the IAEA have the right to a constant
physical or technical presence in Iran’s primary nuclear
sites, Natanz and Fordow, but it will be able to conduct
regular monitoring of Iran’s uranium mines and mills and its
centrifuge production, assembly, and storage facilities. This
means that the IAEA will have surveillance of the entire
fuel cycle and supply chain for Iran’s nuclear program. This
kind of monitoring makes it exceedingly dicult for Iran to
divert materials for clandestine sites without being rapidly
detected. Moreover, the establishment of a dedicated
procurement channel for Iran’s nuclear program will further
enable the close monitoring and approval of materials so as
to minimize the chances of any diversion to a secret program.
Additional Protocol Authorizes Quick Access to
Suspicious Locations. Under the Additional Protocol, which
Iran will legally bind itself to implement as a condition of
sanctions relief, IAEA inspectors can request access to any
location they have reason to suspect relate to undeclared
nuclear activities. This is separate and in addition to the
continuous access described above at declared nuclear
facilities. When requesting access to a suspicious location,
standard practice is to provide with 24 hours’ notice,
but access can be requested with 2 hours’ notice in
certain circumstances. The IAEA verifies through visual
observation and environmental sampling that activities at
undeclared locations do not include clandestine nuclear
activity. These well-established Additional Protocol access
procedures apply for over 120 countries, they are state
of the art, and they can eectively deter and detect illicit
nuclear activities. The Additional Protocol does not exempt
military sites.
When in Dispute, Timely Access to Suspicious Locations
Guaranteed. If Iran were to deny an IAEA request for
access to a suspicious undeclared location, a special
provision in the JCPOA would trigger an access dispute
resolution mechanism. If Iran and the IAEA cannot resolve
the access dispute within 14 days, the issue is brought
to the Joint Commission, which then has 7 days to find a
resolution. If Iran still will not provide access but 5 members
of the Joint Commission (such as the United States, United
Kingdom, France, Germany, and the European Union)
determine access is necessary, Iran must then provide
access within 3 days. We anticipate situations that need the
full 24 days of the dispute resolution process will be rare
because Iran understands that an failure to cooperate with
the IAEA will raise significant suspicions among the P5+1
and potentially lead to a snapback of sanctions.
“Anytime, Anywhere” Inspections Unnecessary. Many
of the core facilities Iran would need as part of a covert
nuclear weapons program — such as an enrichment
production facility, a nuclear reactor, or a uranium metal
casting/machining workshop — would be extremely dicult
to hide and cannot be quickly dismantled or scrubbed of
radioactive evidence. Any suspicious location for which the
IAEA requests access would likely already be under constant
U.S. observation. The United States would know if Iran tried
to play cat-and-mouse games by cleaning out a facility before
granting IAEA access.
Even in the rare circumstance that it took a full 24
days to access a particular undeclared location, IAEA
environmental sampling almost certainly would detect
the presence of nuclear material. Former nuclear
facilities often take years to clean.
JCPOA Does Not Simply Delay
an Iranian Nuclear Weapon
The restriction at the center of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — that
Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon — is permanent. The end of some commitments in
10-15 years will not re-open the door to an Iranian nuclear weapon. Crucial tools blocking Iran’s
nuclear weapons capabilities will endure for 20 or 25 years, while others will have no end date.
Put simply, this deal has a permanent prohibition on Iran having a nuclear weapons program
and a permanent inspections regime that goes beyond any previous inspections regime in Iran.
Iran Is Prohibited from Pursuing or Acquiring Nuclear
Weapons Forever. Iran is obligated as a party to the
Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) not to seek or acquire
nuclear weapons, commitments expressly defined in the
JCPOA. Any Iranian attempt to design, pursue, build or
otherwise seek a nuclear weapon would be an explicit and
detectable violation of the NPT. In the event of Iranian
non-compliance, the JCPOA will enable the United States to
mobilize the international community to take swift action,
including snapping sanctions back into place.
JCPOA Has Long-term Limitations on Iran’s Program.
Iran’s nuclear program is significantly rolled back in the first
decade of the JCPOA. Pursuant to the Additional Protocol,
which Iran will legally bind itself to implement as a condition
of sanctions relief, Iran has developed an enrichment and
R&D plan reviewed by the P5+1. This plan ensures that
after the initial decade of the JCPOA, Iran’s program will
undergo measured, incremental growth consistent with
a peaceful nuclear program. For 15 years, Iran will also
have to maintain the 98 percent removal of its stockpile of
enriched uranium. In contrast, without the JCPOA, Iran,
whose breakout timeline currently is estimated to be 2-3
months, would be free to pursue dramatic increases in its
enrichment capacity in the near- term.
Permanent R&D Restrictions Keep Iran Further from a
Bomb. Beyond the limits on its peaceful nuclear energy
program in the JCPOA, Iran has also committed to not
pursue certain research or activities directly linked to the
development of a nuclear weapon. These prohibitions
include activities related to nuclear explosive modeling,
multi-point detonation systems, explosive diagnostic
systems, and specialized neutron sources.
For 15 years, Iran will not pursue certain types of work
with uranium and plutonium metallurgy, which will further
restrict Iran from gaining the expertise it would need to
develop a nuclear weapon. In fact, without proficiency
in this metallurgy, it cannot build a nuclear weapon,
regardless of enrichment breakout timelines. Because Iran
cannot engage in this preparatory R&D work under the
JCPOA, the international community would have a basis
to respond at an even earlier stage to indications that Iran
had reneged on its commitments and was pursuing a
nuclear weapon.
Transparency Measures Improve Chances of Catching
Iran Even If Iran Cheats. Many of the key transparency
commitments in the JCPOA continue for 20-25 years and in
perpetuity. These measures will give the IAEA the ability to
verify the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.
For example, the Additional Protocol has a proven
track record in 120+ countries. Without the JCPOA, the
international community would be less confident we could
detect the development of a nuclear weapon.
The United States Would Be In Better Position in the
Future If Iran Cheats. If Iran pursued a nuclear weapon
after a decade or more of compliance with the JCPOA, the
United States would still be able to use every tool that is
available today. In fact, we would be in a better position
after a decade of transparency because we will have even
better insight into Iran’s nuclear program. Furthermore, the
sanctions fatigue that risks undermining the pressure Iran
feels today will be gone and a future Iranian transgression
of this magnitude would be more likely to prompt renewed,
vigorous enforcement and pressure on Iran from key allies
and partners and a swift international response.
Tools to Counter Iranian Missile
and Arms Activity
The UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) arms embargo and missile sanctions on Iran
were put in place to pressure Iran to address the international community’s concerns with
its nuclear program. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will include lifting
the UNSCRs that impose these sanctions after the IAEA verifies that Iran has implemented
key nuclear-related measures, but it will also include imposing new UNSCR arms and missile
restrictions for a significant additional period of time (five years for the arms embargo and 8
years for the missile restrictions). However, even after these UNSCR arms and missile
restrictions on Iran are lifted, we can still rely on a broad set of multilateral and unilateral tools,
including sanctions, to continue to restrict Iranian conventional arms and missile-related
transfers. The size of the U.S. economy, the power of our financial system, and the reach of U.S.
unilateral measures gives us enormous leverage to work with third-party countries to enforce
restrictions on Iranian missile and arms activity.
Multilateral Tools
Unilateral Tools
All of these multilateral and unilateral tools remain in place for — and are in no way impacted
by — the JCPOA or any phase of its implementation.
• We will still be able to rely on a series of other UNSCRs
that levy arms embargoes against key areas of concern.
Iranian arms transfers to the Houthis in Yemen, Shia
militants in Iraq, Hizballah in Lebanon, Libya, and North
Korea would thus still violate UNSCRs, and for that
reason, could be susceptible to interdiction.
• We will work with the 100+ countries around the world
that have signed the Proliferation Security Initiative
(PSI) to help limit Iranian missile-related imports or
exports.
• The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) also
plays a critical role in preventing the spread of critical
missile technology. The MTCR Guidelines maintain
a strong presumption of denial for the transfer of
Category I systems, which includes ballistic missiles.
We will continue to rely on countries’ adherence to the
MTCR Guidelines for transports in support of Iran’s
missile program.
• In conjunction with existing UNSCRs and other
multilateral authorities, we will also utilize bilateral
cooperation with countries in the region to block Iranian
access to their territory for activities related to the
illicit shipping of arms or missiles. For example, we are
already preparing eorts with our Gulf partners — as
discussed between the President and Gulf leaders at
Camp David in May — to ramp up regional interdiction
activities to ensure continued restrictions on Iranian
missile and arms activity when the Iran-related UNSCR
restrictions are gone.
• Executive Orders 12938 and 13382 authorize U.S.
sanctions on foreign persons that materially contribute
to the proliferation of missiles capable of delivering
weapons of mass destruction (including eorts to
manufacture, acquire, develop or transfer them), by
any person or foreign country of proliferation concern,
such as Iran. These authorities also authorize sanctions
on any persons that provides material supports to such
activities or sanctioned persons.
• The Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Act
(INKSNA) of 2006 levies U.S. sanctions on entities
connected to Iranian ballistic and cruise missile activity.
• The Lethal Military Equipment Sanctions (2006)
provision in the Foreign Assistance Act, the Iran Sanctions
Act of 1996, as amended, and the Iran-Iraq Arms
Nonproliferation Act (1992) all impose U.S. sanctions on
individuals and entities involved in the sale or transfer
of goods to Iran that may contribute to Iran’s ability to
acquire or develop conventional arms or missiles.
Sanctions That Will Remain in
Place Under the JCPOA
Below is a summary of the U.S. and U.N. sanctions with respect to Iran that will remain in place
under the JCPOA.
1. U.S. Sanctions
Because we will oer relief only from nuclear-related sanctions, a number of U.S. sanctions
authorities and designations with respect to Iran will remain in place after Implementation
Day, as set out below. This will be accomplished by retaining relevant authorities,
including important statutory authorities, the vast majority of Executive orders, and
maintaining certain Iranian persons on OFAC’s List of Specially Designated Nationals and
Blocked Persons (SDN List).
1
Primary U.S. Sanctions
The Government of Iran (GOI) and Iranian financial
institutions — including any property in which they
have an interest — will remain blocked by the United
States. U.S. persons will continue to be broadly prohibited
from engaging in transactions or dealings with the GOI and
Iranian financial institutions.
U.S. persons, including U.S. companies, will continue
to be broadly prohibited from engaging in transactions
with Iran, as well as with Iranian individuals and entities.
General prohibitions include: investment in Iran; importing
Iranian-origin goods or services; and exporting goods or
services to Iran, including clearing U.S. dollars.
U.S. export controls will also continue to apply to
controlled U.S.-origin goods and technology anywhere
in the world.
Nonproliferation Sanctions:
Statutory sanctions will continue to apply to transfers
of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missile
technologies and conventional weapons. These sanctions
cover items going to Iran’s missile program as well as any
items that would contribute to an Iranian eort to develop
nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Statutory
sanctions also cover transfers of certain technologies
that would contribute to enrichment or reprocessing
capabilities or the acquisition of unsafeguarded special
nuclear material. In addition, U.S. law will continue to
provide for sanctions against the transfer of lethal military
equipment or advanced conventional weapons to Iran.
Terrorist List Sanctions:
Iran will continue to be listed as a state that has repeatedly
provided support for acts of international terrorism. A
number of dierent sanctions laws are keyed to this list,
including restrictions on foreign assistance, arms sales,
export of certain sensitive technology and dual-use items,
nuclear cooperation, and various financial restrictions.
1
Approximately 32% of all Iran-related designations (over 200 persons) will remain on OFAC’s SDN List after implementation of the JCPOA; these
persons will be subject to all applicable primary and secondary sanctions. This group was sanctioned in connection with activities outside the scope of
the JCPOA negotiations and associated sanctions relief. The group consists of persons designated in connection with terrorism, human rights abuses,
and activities in Syria, and more than 130 persons designated in connection to Iran’s defense industry and ballistic missile program, which includes the
IRGC and its network.
Designation Authorities
Air, Bank Saderat, and the IRGC-Qods Force. We will also continue aggressively employing
this authority against Iran-sponsored terrorist groups such as Hizballah.
Human Rights:
Authorities will remain in place to allow the U.S. government to target Iran’s human rights abuses and censorship activities.
For example, we will retain the GHRAVITY Executive Order (Executive Order 13606, April 2012), which targets persons
providing information technology to Iran or Syria that could be used by those governments to commit serious human
rights abuses. Also remaining in place will be provisions of Executive Order 13553 (September 2010), Executive Order 13628
(October 2012), the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (CISADA), and the Iran
Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA) targeting human rights abuses.
Opposition to Development Assistance:
Iran’s continued status as a state sponsor of terrorism, moreover, will continue to mean that the U.S. will
use its voice and vote in international financial institutions to oppose assistance to Iran.
Regional Destabilization:
Authorities will remain in place that allow the U.S. government to target Iran’s eorts to destabilize its neighbors and
pursue its desire for regional hegemony. Authorities that will remain include those that target:
Missiles:
Authorities will remain in place to allow the U.S.
government to target Iran’s development of missiles and
other means to deliver weapons of mass destruction
(WMD). For example, Executive Order 13382 and Executive
Order 12938, broad counter-proliferation authorities that
have been used to designate numerous Iranian-linked
targets, would be retained under the JCPOA. More than
130 persons designated pursuant to these authorities
for their involvement in Iran’s missile program and
proliferation activities will remain designated.
Terrorism:
Authorities will remain in place to allow the U.S.
government to target Iran’s support for terrorism. For
example, Executive Order 13224, a broad terrorism authority
that has been used to designate approximately 50 Iranian-
linked targets, would be retained under the JCPOA. Targets
that will remain designated include Iran’s Mahan
Secondary Sanctions:
The United States will also retain secondary sanctions
authorities targeting third parties for dealings with Iranian
persons on our SDN List, including those designated under
our terrorism, counter-proliferation, missile, and human
rights authorities. Secondary sanctions target conduct
by non-U.S. persons related to sanctioned persons or
activities. Anyone worldwide who transacts with or
supports individuals or entities sanctioned in connection
with Iran’s support for terrorism or development of WMD
and missiles—as well as any Iranian individual or entity
who remains on our SDN List—puts themselves at risk of
being cut o from the U.S. financial system. This includes
foreign financial institutions, who would risk losing their
correspondent accounts with U.S. banks. Sanctions will also
continue to apply to persons who provide Iran with specified
weapons, dual use goods and related technologies.
• Syria: Human rights abuses in Syria (Executive Order
13572, April 2011) and providing material support
to the Government of Syria (Executive Order 13582,
August 2011). We have used these authorities to
target numerous companies and persons involved in
such conduct.
• Yemen: Threatening the peace, security, or stability
of Yemen (Executive Order 13611). This authority has
been used to target, for example, Iran-backed Houthi
militant leaders.
• Iraq: Threatening the peace, security, or stability of
Iraq. We have employed this authority to target IRGC
ocials and Iraqis with ties to Iran authorities to
target numerous companies and persons involved in
such conduct.
2. U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Sanctions
UNSC restrictions on Iran’s purchases and sales of conventional arms and related material and ballistic missile-related
items and technology will remain in place for 5 and 8 years, respectively, or until the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) confirms the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier.
There are current UN arms embargoes on the Houthis in Yemen, non-state actors in Lebanon (including Hizbullah),
Afghanistan (the Taliban), Iraq (including Shi’a militias), North Korea, and Libya, as well as on several states in Africa.
Sanctions Relief – Countering
Iran’s Regional Activities
The U.S. sees Iran clearly for what it is: the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism; a
supporter of terrorist groups such as Hizballah and Hamas; a backer of the Asad regime’s
brutality in Syria; and a force for instability in Yemen. That is why, regardless of whether
or not there is a deal, we will maintain and continue to aggressively enforce our sanctions
against Iran’s support for terrorism, human rights abuses, and destabilizing activities in the
region. And, if Iran intensifies these eorts, we — along with our partners — will combat Iran’s
interventions.
U.S. support to our regional partners will continue to be key to countering Iranian aggression
in the region. That is why we are working to expand our cooperation across the board with
regional partners that share our concerns over Iran, as the President agreed with regional
leaders at the Camp David summit in May. This eort will strengthen our regional partners
across a range of areas, while making clear we will not accept Iranian eorts to spread
instability and strengthen its terrorist proxies.
An Unconstrained Iran Would Pose an Even Greater Threat
A nuclear-armed Iran, or an Iran with an unchecked
nuclear program, would be able to project even greater
power in the region. That is precisely why the President
has said we will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.
To that end, we reserve the right to take whatever steps
necessary to protect America’s security. At the same
time, a diplomatic solution is by far the most preferable
and sustainable solution. A nuclear deal that eectively
cuts o all Iranian pathways to a bomb leaves us far better
positioned to address concerns about Iran’s terrorist
activities and support for regional destabilization.
Iran Faces Large and Pressing Domestic Spending Needs
Our sanctions, which we imposed together with the international community, have exacted a major toll on Iran’s economy.
Consider:
Iran needs about half a trillion dollars to meet pressing investment needs, including at least:
Iran also needs about $100 billion to satisfy pressing government obligations, including unfunded
state and military pensions, debts to the domestic banking sector and government contractors, and
to plug shortfalls in the National Development Fund.
Iran’s economy remains 15-20 percent smaller today than it would have been had it remained on its
pre-2011 growth trajectory.
Even if Iran returns to its pre-2012 growth trajectory, it would take until 2020 for Iran’s GDP to
reach the level it would have been last year had it not been for our oil sanctions.
The $100 billion in Iran’s reserves now restricted overseas is unlikely to be repatriated to Iran. As
a matter of prudent economic management, Iran will need to keep most of this money overseas to
facilitate foreign trade and avoid making its currency too expensive.
Iran Will Remain Exposed to Our Sanctions and Snapback
Of Iran’s approximately $100 billion in overseas foreign reserves, we estimate that, after sanctions relief, Iran will be able to
freely access slightly more than half — a little over $50 billion. That is because over $20 billion is dedicated to projects with
China, where it cannot be freely spent, and tens of billions in additional funds are eectively non-performing loans to Iran’s
energy and banking sector that are unlikely to be repaid, at least not in the next few years.
• Energy: $170 billion to develop oil and gas potential
and replace lost capacity
• Agriculture: $100 billion for agricultural
rehabilitation, irrigation, and environmental
remediation
• Infrastructure: $100 billion to complete unfinished
infrastructure projects
• Power: $50 billion over next seven years to satisfy
anticipated demand and invest in renewable energy
Moreover, the Iranian people — and its leadership — are
desperate to see the economic benefits of a deal. Rouhani
was elected on a platform of economic revitalization, and
faces a political imperative to live up to his promises.
In fact, if you look at the released funds from the JPOA,
instead of using these funds to support terrorists, Iran mostly
used them to buy gold, prop up its currency and hedge
against inflation.
It’s also important to note that Iran’s ability to support
terrorism relies less on monetary funds, and more on military
and other political influence since terrorism and Iran’s other
malign regional activities are, unfortunately, not expensive.
The constraints on greater Iranian activities in the region are
primarily non-financial — and we will continue to raise the
costs to Iran of these activities.
To take meaningful advantage of the sanctions relief, Iran will
need to engage with the international community in a way
that sustains our significant leverage. Iran will rely on access
to the international banking system, to import goods and
services and attract foreign capital. As a result, if there is a
deal and Iran fails to abide by its nuclear obligations, will be in
a position to reimpose enormous pressure.
JCPOA Exceeds WINEP Benchmarks
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) exceeds all five benchmarks for a good
deal published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s (WINEP) bipartisan group
for the Iran nuclear issue. The JCPOA rearms U.S. policy to prevent Iran from producing
sucient fissile material for a nuclear weapon — or otherwise acquiring or building one.
The JCPOA ensures both timely and eective International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) access to any location in Iran necessary in order to verify
Iran’s compliance. Not only will the IAEA have daily access to Iran’s primary
nuclear sites, Natanz1 and Fordow
2
, but it will be able to conduct regular
monitoring — using modern technology
3
— of Iran’s uranium mines and mills
4
and its centrifuge production, assembly, and storage facilities
5
. This means
that the IAEA will have access to the supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear
program, as well as be able to continuously monitor the nuclear infrastructure
that is removed as a requirement of this deal. In an instance where the IAEA
has a question about an undeclared location outside Iran’s declared nuclear
program, the IAEA will be able to request access under the Additional Protocol
(AP), which Iran will implement as part of the JCPOA
6
. Access under the
Additional Protocol will be used by the IAEA to verify at undeclared sites that
no unapproved nuclear activity is occurring. Military and other sensitive sites
are not exempt from the AP. Above and beyond the AP, the JCPOA has an
additional procedure that will eectively require Iran to grant IAEA access
to any requested location within a predetermined, limited time period.
7
If
Iran denies access through this procedure, it would be in violation of the
JCPOA. Moreover, the establishment of a dedicated procurement channel for
Iran’s nuclear program will also enable the close monitoring and approval of
materials so as to minimize the chances of any diversion to a secret program.
JCPOA Commitments
Done.
WINEP Benchmarks
Monitoring and Verification:
The inspectors of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (the “IAEA”) charged with monitoring
compliance with the agreement must have timely
and eective access to any sites in Iran they need
to visit in order to verify Iran’s compliance with the
agreement. This must include military (including
IRGC) and other sensitive facilities. Iran must not
be able to deny or delay timely access to any site
anywhere in the country that the inspectors need to
visit in order to carry out their responsibilities.
√
Iran has agreed to address all of the outstanding issues with regards to PMD in
a comprehensive and time-limited manner. The IAEA and Iran together have
developed and agreed on this time-limited process through which Iran will
address the IAEA’s questions by simultaneously and meaningfully engaging
on all of the issues set out in the IAEA Director General’s November 2011
report on PMD. Iran has committed, as a condition of the JCPOA
8
, to provide
the information and access the IAEA needs to complete its investigation of
PMD and issue its independent assessment. Appropriate access will be given
to Parchin. Iran will provide this information and access within the next three
months–by October 15th. Sanctions relief will not be provided unless and until
Iran completes this process and gives the IAEA what it needs. In addition to
addressing past weaponziation concerns, the JCPOA also puts into place new
commitments by Iran not to engage in select activities which could contribute
to the development of a nuclear explosive device.
9
Done.Possible Military Dimensions
The IAEA inspectors must be able, in a timely and
eective manner, to take samples, to interview
scientists and government ocials, to inspect sites,
and to review and copy documents as required for
their investigation of Iran’s past and any ongoing
nuclear weaponization activities (“Possible Military
Dimensions” or “PMD”). This work needs to be
accomplished before any significant sanctions relief.
√
The JCPOA establishes strict limits on advanced centrifuge R&D, testing, and
deployment in the first 10 years, and, after the initial decade, Iran must abide
by its enrichment and R&D plan submitted to the IAEA under the Additional
Protocol. Pursuant to the JCPOA, this plan ensures a measured, incremental
growth in Iran’s enrichment capacity consonant with a peaceful nuclear
program. Iran’s enrichment R&D with uranium will only include IR-4, IR-5,
IR-6, and IR-8 centrifuges for the first decade and will be limited to single
centrifuges and small cascades (less than 30) at Natanz.
10
Mechanical testing
will be limited to not more than 2 single centrifuges on the IR-2M, IR-4, IR-5,
IR-6, IR-6s, IR-7, and IR-8 for the first decade.
11
These R&D activities will be
closely monitored by the IAEA and are suciently limited that, even if Iran
violates its JCPOA commitments, Iran’s breakout timeline for a single nuclear
weapon would remain at least 1 year for the first decade of the JCPOA and
remain longer than the 2-3 months it is today for several years beyond Year 10.
JCPOA Commitments
Done.
WINEP Benchmarks
Advanced Centrifuges:
The agreement must establish strict limits on
advanced centrifuge R&D, testing, and deployment
in the first ten years, and preclude the rapid technical
upgrade and expansion of Iran’s enrichment capacity
after the initial ten-year period. The goal is to push
back Iran’s deployment of advanced centrifuges
as long as possible, and ensure that any such
deployment occurs at a measured, incremental pace
consonant with a peaceful nuclear program.
√
Under the JCPOA, Iran will only receive additional UN, EU, and U.S. sanctions
relief beyond the small level of relief in the Joint Plan of Action once the IAEA
verifies that Iran has implemented key nuclear-related measures agreed upon
in the JCPOA.
12
U.S. sanctions imposed for non-nuclear reasons will remain in
eect and will continue to be vigorously enforced.
Done.Sanctions Relief:
Relief must be based on Iran’s performance of
its obligations. Suspension or lifting of the most
significant sanctions must not occur until the IAEA
confirms that Iran has taken the key steps required
to come into compliance with the agreement.
Non-nuclear sanctions (such as for terrorism) must
remain in eect and be vigorously enforced.
√
The JCPOA has a procedure that will require Iran to grant IAEA access to any
requested location within a predetermined, limited time period.
13
If Iran denies
access through this procedure, it would break its JCPOA commitment and
sanctions could be snapped back. This includes a mechanism that will allow
any member of the P5+1 to unilaterally snap back UN sanctions if there is a
violation for the initial 10 years of the JCPOA. Put simply, neither Iran, Russia,
nor China — or all 3 together — could block the snapback of these sanctions.
There is also a political understanding among the P5 to to preserve the
snapback mechanism for UN sanctions in Years 11-15. And, the EU and United
States can snap back their sanctions at any time if Iran does not meet its
commitments. The United States will always retain the ability to take whatever
steps necessary to protect America’s security and prevent Iran from acquiring
a nuclear weapon if it chooses to seek to acquire one. In fact, this deal puts us
in a better position to do so, if necessary, in the future.
Done.Consequences of Violations:
The agreement must include a timely and eective
mechanism to re-impose sanctions automatically
if Iran is found to be in violation of the agreement,
including by denying or delaying IAEA access. In
addition, the United States must itself articulate the
serious consequences Iran will face in that event.
√
1
JCPOA Annex I, Section P,
2
JCPOA Annex I, Section H,
3
JCPOA Annex I, Section N,
4
JCPOA Annex I, Section O,
5
JCPOA Annex I, Section K,
6
JCPOA
Annex I, Section I,
7
JCPOA Annex I, Section Q,
8
JCPOA Main Text,
9
JCPOA Annex, I, Section T,
10
JCPOA Annex I, Section G,
11
JCPOA Annex I, Section G,
12
JCPOA Annex V, Paragraph 14,
13
JCPOA Annex I, Section Q
JCPOA: Meeting (and Exceeding)
the Lausanne Framework
Below are the key parameters of a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
regarding Iran’s nuclear program that were decided in Lausanne, Switzerland. The
bold text addresses how the JCPOA performed against these broad parameters.
Notably, the JCPOA also exceeded the Lausanne Framework in three broad areas
including on weaponization, metallurgy, and a number of enrichment-related issues.
Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium over 3.67 percent for at least 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
JCPOA Enrichment Commitments
Iran has agreed to reduce its current stockpile of about 12,000 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to 300
kg of 3.67 percent LEU for 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 15)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to reduce by approximately two-thirds its installed centrifuges. Iran will go from having
about 19,000 installed today to 6,104 installed under the deal, with only 5,060 of these enriching
uranium for 10 years. All 6,104 centrifuges will be IR-1s, Iran’s first-generation centrifuge.
(JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
√
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
Iran’s breakout timeline — the time that it would take for Iran to acquire enough fissile material for one
weapon — is currently assessed to be 2 to 3 months. That timeline will be extended to at least one year,
for a duration of at least ten years, under this framework. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9, 15)
√
Iran will convert its facility at Fordow so that it is no longer used to enrich uranium.
Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium at its Fordow facility for at least 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 12)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to convert its Fordow facility so that it is used for peaceful purposes only — into a nuclear,
physics, technology, research center. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 12)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to not conduct research and development associated with uranium enrichment at
Fordow for 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 12)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will not have any fissile material at Fordow for 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 12)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Almost two-thirds of Fordow’s centrifuges and infrastructure will be removed. The remaining centrifuges
will not enrich uranium. All centrifuges and related infrastructure will be placed under IAEA monitoring.
(JCPOA Annex I, p. 12)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will only enrich uranium at the Natanz facility, with only 5,060 IR -1 first-generation centrifuges for
ten years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
Iran has agreed to only enrich uranium using its first generation (IR-1 models) centrifuges at Natanz for
ten years, removing its more advanced centrifuges. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
Iran will remove the 1,000 IR-2M centrifuges currently installed at Natanz and place them in IAEA
monitored storage for ten years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will not use its IR-2M, IR-4, IR-5, IR-6, or IR-8 models to produce enriched uranium for at least ten
years. Iran will engage in limited research and development with its advanced centrifuges, according to a
schedule and parameters which have been agreed to by the P5+1. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 10)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
All excess centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure will be placed in IAEA monitored storage and will be
used only as replacements for operating centrifuges and equipment. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years. (JCPOA
Annex I, p. 9)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
For ten years, enrichment and enrichment R&D will be limited to ensure a breakout timeline of at least 1
year. Beyond 10 years, Iran will abide by its enrichment and enrichment R&D plan submitted to the IAEA,
and pursuant to the JCPOA, under the Additional Protocol resulting in certain limitations on enrichment
capacity. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 14)
JCPOA Inspections and Transparency Commitments
√
Inspectors will have access to the supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program. The new
transparency and inspections mechanisms will closely monitor materials and/or components to prevent
diversion to a secret program. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 21, 22, 23, 25)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Inspectors will have access to uranium mines and continuous surveillance at uranium mills, where Iran
produces yellowcake, for 25 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 21)
Inspectors will have continuous surveillance of Iran’s centrifuge rotors and bellows production and
storage facilities for 20 years. Iran’s centrifuge manufacturing base will be frozen and under continuous
surveillance. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 25)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to implement the Additional Protocol of the IAEA, providing the IAEA much greater
access and information regarding Iran’s nuclear program, including both declared and undeclared
facilities. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 18)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
All centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure removed from Fordow and Natanz will be placed under
continuous monitoring by the IAEA. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9, 12, 22)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
A dedicated procurement channel for Iran’s nuclear program will be established to monitor and approve,
on a case by case basis, the supply, sale, or transfer to Iran of certain nuclear-related and dual use
materials and technology — an additional transparency measure. (JCPOA Annex IV, p. 3)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will be required to grant access to the IAEA to investigate suspicious sites or allegations of a covert
enrichment facility, conversion facility, centrifuge production facility, or yellowcake production facility
anywhere in the country. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 23)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
The IAEA will have regular access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, including to Iran’s enrichment facility
at Natanz and its former enrichment facility at Fordow, and including the use of the most up-to-date,
modern monitoring technologies. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 12, 20, 22)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will implement an agreed set of measures to address the IAEA’s concerns regarding the Possible
Military Dimensions (PMD) of its program. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 19)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to implement Modified Code 3.1 requiring early notification of construction of new
facilities. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 18)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
JCPOA Reactors and Reprocessing Commitments
The original core of the reactor, which would have enabled the production of significant quantities of
weapons-grade plutonium, will be destroyed or removed from the country. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 2)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has agreed to redesign and rebuild a heavy water research reactor in Arak, based on a design that is
agreed to by the P5+1, which will not produce weapons grade plutonium, and which will support peaceful
nuclear research and radioisotope production. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 2-3)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will ship all of its spent fuel from the reactor out of the country for the reactor’s lifetime.
(JCPOA Annex I, p. 7)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran has committed indefinitely to not conduct reprocessing or reprocessing research and development on
spent nuclear fuel. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 7)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will not accumulate heavy water in excess of the needs of the modified Arak reactor, and will sell any
remaining heavy water on the international market for 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 5-6)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Iran will not build any additional heavy water reactors for 15 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 5-6)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
JCPOA Sanctions Commitments
Iran will receive sanctions relief, if it verifiably abides by its commitments. (JCPOA Annex V, p. 2-3)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
U.S. and E.U. nuclear-related sanctions will be suspended after the IAEA has verified that Iran has taken all
of its key nuclear-related steps. If at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitments, these sanctions will snap
back into place. (JCPOA Annex V, p. 2-5)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
The architecture of U.S. nuclear-related sanctions on Iran will be retained for much of the duration of the
deal and allow for snap-back of sanctions in the event of significant non-performance. (JCPOA Text, p.
11-13; 17-18)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
All past UN Security Council resolutions on the Iran nuclear issue will be lifted simultaneous with the
completion, by Iran, of nuclear-related actions addressing all key concerns (enrichment, Fordow, Arak,
PMD, and transparency). (JCPOA Annex V, p. 2-3)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
However, core provisions in the UN Security Council resolutions — those that deal with transfers of
sensitive technologies and activities — will be re-established by a new UN Security Council resolution
that will endorse the JCPOA and urge its full implementation. It will also create the procurement channel
mentioned above, which will serve as a key transparency measure. Important restrictions on conventional
arms and ballistic missiles, as well as provisions that allow for related cargo inspections and asset freezes,
will also be incorporated by this new resolution. (JCPOA Annex IV, throughout and Annex V, p. 3-5)
A dispute resolution process will be specified, which enables any JCPOA participant, to seek to resolve
disagreements about the performance of JCPOA commitments. (JCPOA Text, p. 17-18)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
If an issue of significant non-performance cannot be resolved through that process, then all previous UN
sanctions could be re-imposed. (JCPOA Text, p. 17-18)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
U.S. sanctions on Iran for terrorism, human rights abuses, and ballistic missiles will remain in place under
the deal. (JCPOA Text, p. 10-15)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
JCPOA Phasing Commitments
For fifteen years, Iran will limit additional elements of its program. For instance, Iran will not build new
enrichment facilities or heavy water reactors and will limit its stockpile of enriched uranium and accept
enhanced transparency procedures. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 9-15)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
Important inspections and transparency measures will continue
well beyond 15 years. Iran’s adherence to the Additional Protocol
of the IAEA is permanent, including its significant access and
transparency obligations. The robust inspections of Iran’s uranium
supply chain will last for 25 years. (JCPOA Annex I, p. 21-22)
Even after the period of the most stringent limitations on Iran’s
nuclear program, Iran will remain a party to the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which prohibits Iran’s development or
acquisition of nuclear weapons and requires IAEA safeguards on
its nuclear program. (JCPOA Text, p. 3)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
For ten years, Iran will limit domestic enrichment capacity and research and development — ensuring a
breakout timeline of at least one year. Beyond that, Iran will be bound by its longer-term enrichment and
enrichment research and development plan it shared with the P5+1. (JCPOA Text, p. 6-7)
Commitment Satisfied in the JCPOA
√
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
ABOUT THE JCPOA
National Security Experts
and Former Ocials
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
with Iran stands as a landmark agreement in
deterring the proliferation of nuclear weapons. If
properly implemented, this comprehensive and
rigorously negotiated agreement can be an
eective instrument in arresting Iran’s nuclear
program and preventing the spread of nuclear
weapons in the volatile and vitally important
region of the Middle East.”
– 60 national security leaders and former senior ocials
The deal makes it “a lot harder for the Iranians to get a nuclear bomb over the next 10 or
15 years.”
– Former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Sam Nunn
“If I were in the Senate I would vote to support the agreement…Walking away means
that the sanctions will dissolve,’ he added. ‘We’ll keep them on but they will not have
the same eect and Iran will then be free to proceed to a nuclear weapons and then our
choice will be accepting them with a nuclear weapon or war.”
– Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell
“I think it’s a good and important deal. It is a very complicated one that everybody is
going to have to study. I welcome the discussion about it because…I think it is historic.”
– Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
“I think the agreement is a strong agreement. I think it prevents Iran from developing a
nuclear weapon for at least 10, probably 1 year. I don’t think it depends on trust.
I think it’s veriable. If they cheat, we can go to the U.N.”
– Former U.S. National Security Advisor Sandy Berger
Signatories included:
Madeleine Albright, Samuel Berger, Zbigniew Brzezinski,
Brent Scowcroft, Amb. (ret.) Nicholas Burns, Amb. (ret.)
Ryan Crocker, Former Senator Richard Lugar, Robert
Einhorn, Amb. (ret.) Christopher Hill, Carl Levin, Fmr. Sen.
George J. Mitchell, Jessica T. Mathews, Former Sec. of
Defense William Perry, Amb. (ret.) Thomas Pickering, and
many others.
“The nuclear deal advances western interests. It is a historic step forward for the U.S.
and Europe.”
– Former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Aairs under George W. Bush,
Ambassador Nicholas Burns
A group of former diplomats sent a letter to Congress urging members of both chambers
not to reject the agreement: “[The deal] does meet all of the key goals required for high
condence that, should Iran violate it and move toward building a nuclear weapon, the
international intelligence community and the [International Atomic Energy Agency]
will discover Iran’s actions early and in sucient time for strong countermeasures to be
taken to stop Iran’s activities.”
– Signatories include five former U.S. ambassadors to Israel: James Cunningham, William Harrop,
Edward S. Walker Jr., Thomas Pickering, and Daniel Kurtzer
“I welcome the momentous agreement just reached between the United States and its
P5+1 partners with Iran. This signicant achievement aims to curb Iran’s development
of nuclear weapons while allowing them to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
More importantly, this agreement signals progress in global nuclear non-proliferation.”
– Bishop Oscar Cantu, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
“This patience indicated an enormous desire to nd the right answers and, in so doing,
to have an important and historic impact, not only on the Middle East, but in a larger
sense on the direction of the modern world.”
– Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Religious Leaders
Nuclear and Nonproliferation Experts
“I would give it an A.” “It’s a damn good deal.”
– Nonproliferation expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Jerey Lewis
“The Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action announced earlier today is an important
achievement…If fully implemented, the agreement will signicantly restrict Iran’s
ability to produce ssile materials suitable for nuclear weapons for the next decade.”
– Union of Concerned Scientists
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb, without
putting a single U.S. soldier in harm’s way.”
– Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares Fund
“I’ve read all 159 pages of the deal, and I think it is arguably the most robust, intrusive,
multilateral nonproliferation agreement ever negotiated. It’s stronger than the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, which turned out to be an incredible success, protecting us
from the spread of nuclear weapons. It’s better than the agreement George W. Bush got
with [Libya].”
– Jim Walsh, Research Associate, MIT Security Studies Program
“This is a stunning accomplishment…I’ve been a part of this business for 40 years at this
point, and I’ve never seen anything that begins to approach the comprehensiveness of
this agreement.”
– Thomas Shea, veteran former inspector with the IAEA
Regional Editorials on the Iran Deal
Alabama
Good Faith Needed On Iran Deal
“Of course, Iran is hardly an innocent. Its leaders are theocratic extremists who do not
respect democracy or human rights. It is a leading national sponsor of terrorism. Were
its ambitions to produce a nuclear weapon to be successful, the balance of power in the
Middle East and across the globe would change for the worst. Given this, Tuesday’s
announcement that a U.S.-led eort to strike a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions
is welcome news if — and it’s a big if — all parties can stick to the terms of the accord.
Count as a positive anything that puts o full-scale war and oers at least a chance of a
more peaceful world. The United States and its ve national partners — Russia, Britain,
France, China and Germany — receive assurances that a nuclear Iran is at the very least
left to some date in the future. In return, Iran has the crippling nancial sanctions that
have caused suering in Tehran lifted.”
– The Anniston Star, 7/14/15
Arizona
Iran Deal A Gamble, But No Deal Would Be Worse
“Obama is convinced the world is better o by transforming Iran from the world’s leader
in state-sponsored terrorism into a responsible regional leader. Said Obama: ‘A dierent
path, one of tolerance and peaceful resolution of conict, leads to more integration
into the global economy, more engagement with the international community, and the
ability of the Iranian people to prosper and thrive. ‘This deal oers an opportunity
to move in a new direction. We should seize it.’ That transformation of Iran — from
sponsor of terror to member in good standing in the community of nations — is the
great gamble in this agreement. Iran today is arming and organizing terrorists in Syria,
Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, Somalia and elsewhere. Will an agreement requiring constant
engagement with former adversaries, notably the U.S., change Iran? There is no
shortage of doubters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted it ‘will
enable [Iran] to continue to pursue its aggression and terror.’ Without an agreement,
however, Iran already is pursuing its aggression and terror. It isacting outside the sphere
of responsible states. This agreement creates a scenario in which that fundamentalist
dynamic might change. Is it guaranteed? Not at all. But none of the doubters have
oered a better idea. This is what we’ve got.”
– Arizona Republic, 7/14/15
California
Our Preliminary Assessment Is That, If Its Terms Are Strictly Enforced, The Deal
Is Likely To Put Nuclear Weapons Beyond Iran’s Reach For A Decade Or More, A
Signicant Achievement And Probably The Best Outcome Available
“The underlying question is not whether the deal is perfect. Of course it isn’t. The
question is whether it achieves its intended objective: to prevent the Islamic Republic
— for a signicant period of time — from developing nuclear weapons, launching a
regional arms race and forcing the U.S. to consider yet another military operation in the
Middle East. That should dominate what we hope will be a robust and reasoned debate
over the wisdom of the agreement. Our preliminary assessment is that, if its terms are
strictly enforced, the deal is likely to put nuclear weapons beyond Iran’s reach for a
decade or more, a signicant achievement and probably the best outcome available. But
we await more discussion, evidence and analysis.”
– Los Angeles Times, 7/15/15
Still, An Agreement With A Reasonable Shot At Success Is Worth Trying Because
The Alternative Is Another War, And That Should Be A Last Resort. America Is
Not In The Position Of A Neville Chamberlain, Negotiating From A Position Of
Weakness To Avoid Conict.
“First, no one outside of Iran — and perhaps the loopy North Korean regime — wants
Iran to have nuclear weapons. Second, while the U.S. led the negotiations, Britain,
France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union are all participants — and
they have a history of not agreeing on much of anything. Finally, this negotiation is
not an academic exercise, nor is it operating in a vacuum. Any agreement, good or bad,
could have dramatically unpleasant geopolitical side eects. One possibility is a nuclear
arms race among Iran’s neighbors -- especially the wealthy ones — if they feel the deal
isn’t adequate to stop Iran from going nuclear. Still, an agreement with a reasonable shot
at success is worth trying because the alternative is another war, and that should be a
last resort. America is not in the position of a Neville Chamberlain, negotiating from
a position of weakness to avoid conict. We and our allies in this negotiation have the
ability to bomb Iran’s real or suspected nuclear sites into oblivion. We would just prefer
not to. But let’s not rushing to judgment on the agreement either way. Let’s resist letting
cable news mavens of whatever stripe tell us what to think, do some reading on our own
and have an honest discussion with the goal of giving our government guidance on how
to proceed.”
– San Jose Mercury News, 7/15/15
Implementation Is What Will Determine The Success Or Failure Of
The Deal, Which Takes Into Account These Possibilities.
In The Meanwhile, The Agreement Deserves A Chance.
“The agreement basically fullls the mission of decreasing the possibilities for Iran to
continue producing nuclear materials at its current pace. It requires many reductions,
ranging from uranium enrichment (through signicant cuts in its stockpile) to the
number of centrifuges. It also establishes a system of strict international oversights, and
lifts sanctions gradually as parts of the deal are fullled, instead of being immediate
as Iran wanted. As was to be expected, a group in Congress that had announced
opposition to the deal even when the details were unknown disagrees with it. Publicly,
they claim that it endangers Israel and the Arab countries. Privately, the Republican
strategy to capture the White House involves an allegedly weak U.S. foreign policy.
Because of that, no matter what Obama does, he will be attacked. Israeli lobbying
in Washington against the agreement, as seen during a speech that Prime Minister
Netanyahu made to Congress, will surely be a factor. Implementation is what will
determine the success or failure of the deal, which takes into account these possibilities.
In the meanwhile, the agreement deserves a chance.”
– La Opinion, 7/15/15
A Historic Accord On Iran’s Nuclear Program
“With Iran’s track record, President Barack Obama is right that the nuclear pact
announced Tuesday must be even stricter. ‘This deal is not built on trust. It is built
on verication,’ he said from the White House. The agreement between Iran and six
world powers led by the United States is historic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu called it a ‘historic mistake’ that would allow Iran to become a ‘terrorist
nuclear superpower.’ Supporters, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, called it
a historic accomplishment. ‘This is a strong agreement that meets our national security
needs and I believe will stand the test of time,’ she said in a statement.”
– Sacramento Bee, 7/14/15
Colorado
The Iran Agreement Is Supposed To Help Keep Nukes Out Of The Hands Of
Crazies. Denouncing It Without Actually Knowing What Is In It Or Hearing
From Military And Foreign-Policy Experts About How It Might Work Is
Irresponsible And Dangerous.
“Republicans understandably oppose the president on many fronts, which reects honest
philosophical dierences, as well as party politics. But Obama’s support for something
does not automatically constitute a logical reason to endorse its opposite. The Iran
agreement is supposed to help keep nukes out of the hands of crazies. Denouncing
it without actually knowing what is in it or hearing from military and foreign-policy
experts about how it might work is irresponsible and dangerous. Opposing the deal
because it is not warlike enough is just plain nuts. The neocons who pushed the
invasion of Iraq thought the U.S. could not only destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime but
remake the country into something reecting American values. They were wrong,
and Americans paid dearly for their hubris. At the least, Obama is right not to repeat
that error. That some of his critics seem willing to is frightening. The U.S. has been
continuously at war in the Middle East for more than a decade. We do not need to
attack another, larger Muslim country.”
– Durango Herald, 7/16/15
We’ve Tended To Give The Benet Of The Doubt To The Administration’s Goals,
On The Theory That Economic Sanctions Have Not Deterred Iran And Are
Unlikely To Do So In The Future, And Putting Iran’s Nuclear Program On Ice For
At Least 10 Years Would Be Progress.
“It’s hard to exaggerate the importance of the nuclear deal with Iran to President
Obama’s legacy and indeed the security of the Middle East. If the deal stops ‘the spread
of nuclear weapons in this region,’ as Obama insisted Tuesday, it will be a magnicent
achievement. But if the deal fails to halt Iran’s pursuit of such weapons, and cheating
leads to a regional arms race and war, Obama will become a 21st century version of
‘Peace for Our Time’ Neville Chamberlain. We’ve tended to give the benet of the
doubt to the administration’s goals, on the theory that economic sanctions have not
deterred Iran and are unlikely to do so in the future, and putting Iran’s nuclear program
on ice for at least 10 years would be progress. But if that is true, it is also why the
verication and enforcement elements are so important — and why they should become
the focus of Congress in the coming days.”
– Denver Post, 7/14/15
Florida
For Those Who Accuse President Obama And Secretary Of State John Kerry
Of Caving, The Other Five Partners In This Negotiation Also Had To Approve
The Agreement. United States Action Alone Could Not Have Forced Iran To
Negotiate. We Had Tried That Since 1979.
“Inspectors will raise issues if they suspect Iran is violating the agreement. Iran will
get two weeks to respond. If the inspectors are not satised, the United States, its
ve negotiating partners — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — the
European Union and Iran have another week to resolve the issue. If Iran is found to
be in violation, sanctions could return within 65 days. Analysts also note that it would
take just ve votes to reimpose the sanctions, so if Iran and its sympathizers, China
and Russia, tried to block their return, they could be outvoted by the U.S., Britain,
France, Germany and the European Union. For those who accuse President Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry of caving, the other ve partners in this negotiation also
had to approve the agreement. United States action alone could not have forced Iran to
negotiate. We had tried that since 1979. The United Nations and the European Union
imposed their own sanctions, prompted in large part by the disputed 2009 re-election of
Iran’s vitriolic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The 2013 election of reform-minded
Hassan Rouhani provided Obama with an opportunity, and he took it. The agreement
will not end the mutual distrust between Iran and the U.S. Americans remember the
hostage-taking 36 years ago and our label ‘The Great Satan.’ Iranians remember that
the U.S. overthrew their democratically elected leader in 1953 and replaced him with
the shah. Since the Islamic revolution, the life expectancy in Iran is longer, its infant
mortality is lower and its access to health care is higher. Iran is a country of 80 million
people in a region where boil is the constant setting. It makes no sense to distance
ourselves…The agreement is progress. If Congress passes legislation to block the deal,
Obama should veto it — in the national interest.”
– Sun Sentinel, 7/15/15
Question But Give Fair Hearing To Iran Pact
“Despite the considerable achievements of the momentous diplomatic pact with Iran
unveiled Tuesday — mainly, a surrender of most of that nation’s nuclear-weapons
infrastructure for at least a decade — most Americans are bound to have some
misgivings and a lot of questions. They should. Still, the agreement deserves an honest
hearing, politics aside, from Congress and the American public, and any rush to
judgment is premature. That goes for either the immediate embrace of a complicated
document of almost 100 pages with a nation that is not trustworthy, or, conversely, the
out-of-hand rejection of a deal that the U.S. negotiating team led by Secretary of State
John Kerry worked hard to deliver over 22 months of arduous bargaining and occasional
shouting matches. Reaching agreement to freeze Iran’s march toward nuclear capability
without resorting to war is a credit to the Obama administration’s persistence. But Mr.
Obama must still convince the country that this deal will reduce the danger of a nuclear
attack by Iran, and that a rigorous inspection program will verify compliance.”
– Miami Herald, 7/15/15
Iran Nuclear Deal Appears Promising
“The historic agreement aimed at crippling Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon has
enormous potential to make the world a safer place. But there is much to digest about
the deal announced Tuesday with the United States and ve other world powers, and
Congress should use wisely the 60 days it has to carefully vet the details. It is a review
that should be based on national security and our nation’s long-term interests, not
political calculations, campaign sound bites or interference from allies such as Israel.
The headlines of the accord are promising and the result of months of negotiations.
The deal extends the time Iran would need to produce an atomic bomb from two or
three months to at least one year, which would give the United States and its allies an
opportunity to react if the Iranians broke the agreement. It dramatically reduces Iran’s
supplies of enriched uranium and its stockpile of centrifuges used to enrich uranium
gas. It forces signicant changes in existing facilities that could be used to help produce
nuclear weapons. Those would be positive achievements that are certainly better than
the status quo.”
– Tampa Bay Times, 7/14/15
Idaho
Negotiations Produced Nuclear Agreement,
Not Iranageddon
“Movies are not real. The characters in movies are not real. John Wayne was not Marion
Morrison’s real name. So maybe candidates trying to become the leader of the free
world should stop implying that America should be more like John Wayne and just
whip those Iranian Ayatollahs into submission. On July 13, after decades of non-
communication, years of punishing sanctions, and months of intense negotiations,
Iran and America signed an agreement in which Iran will roll back its nuclear weapons
development capability in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. The agreement
is 80 pages long. Each word has been negotiated. It covers complicated requirements
and has serious implications for the future of the Middle East, as well as American-
Iranian relations. Congress has approximately 60 days to accept or reject it. Both Iran
and the U.S. will see internal opposition. The sanctions brought Iranian negotiators
to the table. They found a willing partner in President Obama, who demonstrated his
understanding of the community-organizing trope that there are no permanent friends
or permanent enemies.”
– Idaho Mountain Express, 7/17/15
Illinois
The Long-Awaited Iranian Nuclear Deal Finalized On Tuesday Appears To Be
The Very Best – And Most Certainly The Only Realistic – Shot At Preventing Iran
From Developing A Nuclear Weapon
“The long-awaited Iranian nuclear deal nalized on Tuesday appears to be the very
best – and most certainly the only realistic – shot at preventing Iran from developing
a nuclear weapon. The ne print matters tremendously, of course. Over the next 60
days, Congress must pore over the agreement negotiated with the United States,
China, Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany, scrutinizing a deal that the Obama
administration promises is built not on trust but on verication. If that basic ideal
bears out, and we have condence it will given the frameworks that preceded it and the
nations that negotiated it, Congress must not stand in the way of a historic deal that was
unthinkable just a few years ago.”
– Chicago Sun-Times, 7/14/15
Massachusetts
After Two Years Of Grueling Negotiations, The Obama Administration Has
Finally Pulled O A Historic Deal With Iran That Resolves — At Least For The
Time Being — One Of The Most Pressing Foreign Policy Challenges Facing The
World: Concerns That Iran Could Be Building A Nuclear Bomb.
“After two years of grueling negotiations, the Obama administration has nally pulled o
a historic deal with Iran that resolves — at least for the time being — one of the most
pressing foreign policy challenges facing the world: concerns that Iran could be building
a nuclear bomb. The agreement, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for
lifting sanctions that have crippled the country, is far from perfect. No diplomatic
compromise ever is. The deal’s biggest aw is that it curbs Iran’s production of enriched
uranium for only a decade. Limits on Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium last slightly
longer: 15 years. Nonetheless, this deal is better than the status quo. Iran currently
possesses 10,000 kilograms of enriched uranium. Under the deal, the country will be
forced to reduce that to 300 kilograms. Iran currently has about 20,000 centrifuges,
which are used to enrich uranium. Under the deal, it will be forced to dismantle all but
5,000 of them. Without an agreement, Iran would almost certainly return to full-scale
uranium enrichment, forcing the United States and its allies closer to a possible military
confrontation at a time of great instability in the region.”
– Boston Globe, 7/15/15
Maryland
If The Standard Is That No Agreement Is Better Than Any Compromise Because
Iran Can Never Be Trusted, Then The Only Alternative Is War. That’s In No
One’s Interest.
“The only purpose such a demand serves is to make it easier for opponents of an accord
to hide behind the idea that the U.S. could have gotten a better deal if it had been
willing to walk away from the talks in Vienna. In fact, Mr. Kerry warned that the U.S.
was prepared to do just that if the negotiations stalled, and a senior administration
ocial characterized the deal on the table as actually better than the president
expected. That, of course, is not the same as saying it’s a perfect deal. No agreement
would have been. Whether the U.S. could have gotten an even better deal if it had
been willing to hold out longer in Vienna, as Mr. Netanyahu insisted, is ultimately
unknowable.On the other hand, the consequences of Congress rejecting the deal
Mr. Kerry negotiated are all too easy to imagine. It would almost certainly wreck
the international sanctions regime imposed on Iran because other countries would
be unlikely to follow the United States’ lead and instead would lift their sanctions
unilaterally. That not only would weaken the most important leverage the U.S. has to
restrain Iran’s nuclear program, but by releasing billions of dollars into its accounts, it
would also put Iran back on a path to a bomb in a greatly strengthened position. That’s
in neither our interest nor those of our allies in the region. Republicans are right that we
can’t trust Iran, and we shouldn’t. That’s why the U.S. is insisting on a robust inspection
and monitoring regime that can respond promptly to evidence of Iranian cheating. We
need to thoroughly vet the details of this accord, and we need to examine Iran’s nuclear
sites and talk to its scientists who in the past may have carried out weapons research to
establish a baseline for their future activities. But it would be a mistake to dismiss the
Vienna accord out of hand, as some in Congress appear inclined to do. If the standard
is that no agreement is better than any compromise because Iran can never be trusted,
then the only alternative is war. That’s in no one’s interest.”
– Baltimore Sun, 7/14/15
Michigan
But Going To War With Iran Would Hardly Provide The Greater Stability Critics
Of The Deal Purport To Seek. The U.S. Has Long Held — And Should Continue
To Maintain — Close Ties With Israel, And That Nation Opposes This Deal. Yet
At This Time, We See No Other Viable Path
“Obama now must seek approval from the U.S. Congress, where Republican lawmakers
have already vowed to scuttle the deal. Some are genuinely concerned that it does
too little to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Others are spoiling for a military
confrontation with Iran, and seem disappointed that this week’s nuclear pact may
postpone, or even avert, such a showdown. But going to war with Iran would hardly
provide the greater stability critics of the deal purport to seek. The U.S. has long held
— and should continue to maintain — close ties with Israel, and that nation opposes
this deal. Yet at this time, we see no other viable path. Iran is a sprawling nation with
a large economy; marginalizing it is not a sustainable option, and provoking a military
conict with its incumbent rulers would be reckless. U.S. eorts at regime change in
Iraq mired us, and that country, in more than a decade of strife, with no end in sight.
War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy, British politician Tony Benn once said. Right
now, diplomacy holds the greatest promise of success.”
– Detroit Free Press, 7/16/15
Minnesota
Global Leaders Recognized The Threat That A Weaponized Iran Posed, And
Through Strict Sanctions The P5+1 Brought Iran Into A Multilateral Negotiating
Process That Resulted In An Accord. So A Major Global Challenge Was
Addressed, However Imperfectly, Without War. Diplomacy Produced Results.
“Opinions will vary on the deal announced Tuesday between Iran and the ‘P5+1’ (the
United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China — the ve permanent
members of the U.N. Security Council — plus Germany). But all should acknowledge
that the beleaguered international system worked as designed in producing an
agreement on Iran’s potential nuclear weapons program. Global leaders recognized the
threat that a weaponized Iran posed, and through strict sanctions the P5+1 brought
Iran into a multilateral negotiating process that resulted in an accord. So a major global
challenge was addressed, however imperfectly, without war. Diplomacy produced
results. As Congress considers its response over the next 60 days, it should keep in
mind that this isn’t just about Iran, but also about maintaining the capacity of the
international system to coalesce on critical matters, despite tensions and disagreements
on so many other geopolitical issues. Rejecting this kind of engagement will make it
much more dicult for subsequent presidents to achieve similar results.”
– Star Tribune, 7/14/15
Missouri
Iran Nuclear Deal Is A Path Away From War
“We have seen what comes of U.S. involvement in Middle East wars — destabilization,
new terrorist threats and more war. The pact with Iran announced Tuesday is about
diminishing the chances of the United States going to war to stop Iran from deploying
a nuclear weapon. To that end, the U.S. and its negotiating partners forged a sound
deal. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry should be hailed
for a historic achievement. To gain the lifting of international economic sanctions,
Iran agreed to surrender 98 percent of its supply of low-enriched uranium and to
remove two-thirds of its nuclear centrifuges — technology that spins uranium into the
concentrated form that could produce a nuclear explosion. Iran also agreed not to seek
or possess highly enriched uranium for at least 15 years. Signicantly, it consented to
full-time monitoring of every aspect of its nuclear program.”
– Kansas City Star, 7/14/15
Nebraska
Perhaps The Most Important Thing To Keep In Mind Is That Without A Deal,
Iran Will Be Free To Develop Its Nuclear Program Without Any Restrictions.
Iran Has Everything It Needs, Including Skilled Scientists.
“The only real question that needs to be answered on the Iran deal is whether the world
is a safer place with it, or without it. Because the world is violent, and things often are
not what they seem, the question is extraordinarily dicult to answer. It’s unfortunate
that too many members of Congress had their minds made up before the details of the
agreement were announced, and before the deal could be evaluated… Perhaps the most
important thing to keep in mind is that without a deal, Iran will be free to develop its
nuclear program without any restrictions. Iran has everything it needs, including skilled
scientists. Informed guesses range from months to years on how quickly Iran could
create a nuclear weapon. If the deal is what the Obama administration claims, it will
slow that process, for example, with new limits on how many centrifuges the country
can operate to purify nuclear material.”
– Journal Star, 7/16/15
New Jersey
The Nuclear Deal With Iran Is A Calculated
Risk That Is Decidedly Worth Taking
“The nuclear deal with Iran is a calculated risk that is decidedly worth taking. The risk is
that by lifting potent economic sanctions, it will strengthen Iran’s sputtering economy,
empowering an avowed enemy of the United States and its allies in the Middle East.
That is enough for both Israel and some Sunni Arab states to oppose the agreement,
and it is a valid concern that President Obama will have to address as Congress debates
this over the next few months. Iran and its proxies are defending the brutal Assad
regime in Syria, provoking Sunni-Shiite tensions in places like Yemen, and supporting
terrorists groups that are devoted to the destruction of Israel, including Hamas and
Hezbollah. And this agreement focuses solely on the question of nuclear arms; it makes
no demand that Iran change its behavior in the region. But critics of the deal tend to
ignore two hard realities. One is that Iran is well along on the path to building nuclear
weapons, and will surely acquire them if this agreement is rejected. Even if sanctions are
kept in place, a nuclear Iran would be far more dangerous.”
– Star-Ledger, 7/15/15
Nevada
The Criticisms Center More On What The Treaty Doesn’t Do Than What It
Does, And On The More Existential Idea That You Don’t Make Deals With An
Enemy. But This Deal Is In Fact Remarkable For What It Didn’t Have To Do To
Accomplish Something Of Paramount Importance To The U.S. And The World.
“The criticisms center more on what the treaty doesn’t do than what it does, and on
the more existential idea that you don’t make deals with an enemy. But this deal is in
fact remarkable for what it didn’t have to do to accomplish something of paramount
importance to the U.S. and the world. It doesn’t normalize relations between the two
countries. Obama noted Iran’s ongoing support of terrorism and its funding and use
of proxies such as Hezbollah to destabilize parts of the Middle East. He stressed that
U.S. sanctions over human-rights violations and other issues will continue…It’s far
from perfect, but it makes the world safer than it would have been. And maybe more
important, it shows the potential for nding areas of shared interest and collaboration
even between opponents.”
– Las Vegas Sun, 7/26/15
New York
An Iran Nuclear Deal That Reduces the
Chance of War
“The nal deal with Iran announced by the United States and other major world powers
does what no amount of political posturing and vague threats of military action had
managed to do before. It puts strong, veriable limits on Iran’s ability to develop a
nuclear weapon for at least the next 10 to 15 years and is potentially one of the most
consequential accords in recent diplomatic history, with the ability not just to keep
Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon but also to reshape Middle East politics. The
deal, the product of 20 arduous months of negotiations, would obviously have provided
more cause for celebration if Iran had agreed to completely dismantle all of its nuclear
facilities. But the chances of that happening were eectively zero, and even if all of
Iran’s nuclear-related buildings and installations were destroyed, no one can erase the
knowledge Iranian scientists have acquired after working on nuclear projects
for decades.”
– New York Times, 7/14/15
The Deal Provides Some Hope Of Preventing Iran From Becoming A Nuclear
Nation That Could Threaten The Middle East And, With That, The World
“Here is the fundamental question regarding the nuclear deal struck this week with
Iran: Are the United States, Israel and the rest of the civilized world better o with it
or without it? Upon reection the answer seems clear: The deal provides some hope of
preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear nation that could threaten the Middle East
and, with that, the world. It is not in any way guaranteed to do that and no one should
expect that it will without rigorous enforcement of all its moving parts. To paraphrase
one of Ronald Reagan’s most famous aphorisms: Don’t trust; verify. An agreement
limiting Iran’s nuclear capability oers the only path – short of military action – to what
all say they want, which is to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of a government
that has repeatedly shown itself to be erratic and untrustworthy.”
– Bualo News, 7/17/15
North Carolina
Despite GOP, Israeli Critics,
The Iran Deal Is A Good One
“From Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey
Graham to other Republican presidential candidates, the reaction to the Obama
administration’s deal to get Iran to curb its ambitions for nuclear arms has been
uniformly negative. It’s sad, in a way, that whether it’s a judicial nomination or a
nuclear arms treaty, the GOP response is utterly predictable. Part of the reaction from
Graham and other GOP presidential aspirants is explained in their need to appeal to
the Republican right-wing base. And, it’s an opportunity to pander to Israel, which
Graham went over the top in doing, calling the treaty ‘akin to declaring war on Israel.’
Netanyahu believes any discussion with anyone other than Israel is a threat to his
country. But the truth is, this is a good deal. It is not perfect, and it is time-limited
(Iran will not be able to build beyond a limit on enriched uranium for 10 years) but it
is preferable to war, which seems to be the Republican alternative. President George
W. Bush’s shoot rst, ask questions later approach didn’t work well, and thousands of
Americans perished in Iraq and Afghanistan. And any kind of attack on Iran would
iname the entire Mideast, possibly drawing Americans into another prolonged and
deadly confrontation.”
– The News & Observer, 7/15/15
Ohio
We Give Nothing Up By Testing Whether Or Not This Problem Can Be Solved
Peacefully,’ Obama Said. He’s Right.
“Selling the deal to a skeptical Congress is critical but U.S. ocials remain optimistic
that its long-term advantages will become obvious -- including the signicance of an
accord involving not just Iran, but also Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France,
Germany and the European Union reaching consensus on a way forward in a highly
dangerous region of the world. ‘This agreement will withstand the test of scrutiny in the
next days,’ Kerry said condently. Obama argues the deal closes o no future options
for U.S. or U.N. action but rather promises -- if successful -- to move Iran further away
from nuclear weapons capability with the added safeguards of ’the inspections and
transparency that allow us to monitor the Iranian program.’ ‘We give nothing up by
testing whether or not this problem can be solved peacefully,’ Obama said. He’s right.”
– Cleveland Plain Dealer, 7/15/15
The Agreement Reects A Calculated And Necessary Risk: Better To Make A
Credible Eort At Checking The Nuclear Ambitions Of Iran For A Decade Than
Test The Alternative And Likely Fallout
“Will Iran keep its word? From the start, these talks have been about an exchange. Iran
backs away from seeking nuclear weapons. The United States and the other countries
ease the punishing economic sanctions they have imposed. What the agreement says is
that no relief will come until Iran has moved to limit uranium enrichment, converted
the Arak plant, provided for transparency and supplied information about its past
pursuit of nuclear weapons. More, provisions outline how sanctions would ‘snap back’
if Iran violates the accord. The agreement is not perfect, by any measure. Neither does
it reect the president and other leaders somehow giving away the store just to get a
deal. The negotiations were long because they were tough. The agreement reects a
calculated and necessary risk: Better to make a credible eort at checking the nuclear
ambitions of Iran for a decade than test the alternative and likely fallout. So, be
suspicious and skeptical. It also bears mentioning that relations with Iran, in a bad place
for 35 years, have little chance of improving without such a start.”
– Akron Beacon Journal, 7/15/15
Pennsylvania
We Give Nothing Up By Testing Whether Or Not This Problem Can Be Solved
Peacefully,’ Obama Said. He’s Right.
“Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke for many opponents of the agreement
to restrict Iran’s nuclear weapons development. It’s ‘appeasement,’ he said, evoking
the abandonment of Czechoslovakia that emboldened Hitler. But those critics might
consider the other side of that coin. Isolation of Germany following World War I, and
the resulting resentment it produced among Germans, were major factors in Hitler’s
rise to power. The Iran agreement indeed is not perfect, thus reecting the real-life
conditions that led to it. It makes Iran a ‘nuclear-threshold state,’ meaning that it
probably would be able to develop a nuclear weapon towards the end of the agreement,
in about 15 years. But anyone who thought that Iran was going to abandon its nuclear
capability was unrealistic. This agreement commits Iran to reducing its potential
nuclear material stockpile by 98 percent and diminishing its capacity to produce that
fuel by about two-thirds, and to allow independent inspections by the International
Atomic Energy Agency. The provisions increase the period that it would take to
produce a weapon from about three months to about a year.”
– The Times-Tribune, 7/15/15
Deal Worth The Eort
“The seven-nation agreement aimed at halting Iran’s progress toward a nuclear arsenal
has been criticized as merely delaying the inevitable, but that ignores the value of
delay. Delay can buy valuable time to shape relationships and make better deals that
might prevent the apparently inevitable from ever happening. Ultimately, the success
of the pact won’t be decided by those who negotiated it or the leaders of the countries
they represented. It will be decided by the people of Iran, who have endured years of
economic sanctions imposed on their repressive regime to reach this point. It will be up
to the Iranian people to let the ayatollahs who rule their country know in no uncertain
terms that they don’t want an atomic bomb if it means going back to the shortages and
deprivations the sanctions caused.”
– The Philadelphia Inquirer, 7/15/15
Is The Agreement Perfect? Certainly Not, But It Is Far Better Than Allowing Iran
To Fester In Dangerous Isolation.
“The ball actually will be in the court of Democrats. Once Congress has the accord in
writing, it has 60 days to review it. Mr. Obama has promised to veto any measure that
would scuttle the deal, so persuading his fellow Democrats to go along will be key in
preventing an override. The response so far has been cautious. Even a rejection by the
United States, however, would not necessarily mean the entire agreement would be
scrapped. China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom all are parties
to it, so the Iranian market could be opened to their companies and investors even
without the United States. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the
accord, and the U.N. Security Council is expected to vote as early as next Tuesday on a
resolution that spells out the steps toward lifting sanctions. Is the agreement perfect?
Certainly not, but it is far better than allowing Iran to fester in dangerous isolation.”
– Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/15/15
Tennessee
It Is Also A Beginning That Congress Should Recognize And Work To Help
America And The Other Nations Involved Build Upon.
“A group of six nations led by the United States reached a historic accord with Iran on
Tuesday. The agreement — to signicantly limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than
a decade in return for, after ve years, lifting international oil and nancial sanctions
— is, in President Barack Obama’s words ‘not built on trust — it is built on verication.’
It is also a beginning that Congress should recognize and work to help America and
the other nations involved build upon. The deal comes after 20 months of negotiations.
A New York Times review of the 109-page agreement shows that the United States
preserved — and in some cases extended — the nuclear restrictions it sketched out with
Iran in early April in Lausanne, Switzerland… The current stockpile of low enriched
uranium will be reduced by 98 percent, most likely by shipping much of it to Russia
— a portion of the deal that seems less than reassuring since Russia is a longtime
supplier of military equipment to Iran. Nonetheless, Iran’s lowered stockpile limit,
combined with a two-thirds reduction in the number of its centrifuges, would extend to
a year the amount of time it would take Iran to make enough material for a single bomb
should it abandon the deal and return to a race for a weapon, according to analysts. By
comparison, those analysts say Iran now could complete its bomb in two to
three months.”
– Chattanooga Free Press, 7/15/15
Texas
The Iranian Deal Is Less Than Perfect, But It Will Delay Any Iranian Nuclear
Weapon And Was The Best Deal That Could Be Negotiated — Which Makes It
As Perfect As Possible For The Times.
“The Iranian deal is less than perfect, but it will delay any Iranian nuclear weapon and
was the best deal that could be negotiated — which makes it as perfect as possible for
the times. This deal was not negotiated between the U.S. and Iran alone. It involved
other major world powers and represents as close to unanimity on any issue these
‘partners’ have arrived at in many a year. That is a milestone in and of itself. There is
simply no viable alternative. Holding the international coalition together indenitely
for negotiating or sanctions is unrealistic. Iran will not totally dismantle its nuclear
infrastructure, and the knowledge to build a bomb cannot be erased in any case. The
aim of dismantling was a nonstarter. But the agreement will require Iran to reduce its
stockpile of low-enriched uranium and reduce also the number of centrifuges that can
be used to do that enriching.”
– San Antonio Express-News, 7/17/15
Utah
Utah’s Elected Ocials Should Have The Smarts, And The Political Capital, To
Explain To Us That The Hope For Progress That Obama Has Tried To Build
With This Pact May Be The Best We Can Reasonably Hope For. Unless They’d
Rather Go To War.
“Sadly, the Utahns in Congress were quick to condemn the deal. Chaetz called it
‘totally unacceptable.’ Rep. Chris Stewart said, ‘It just makes me mad.’ Hatch objected,
‘Any deal that removes sanctions without robust means of ensuring the regime’s
disarmament and compliance ... is worse than no deal at all.’ A claim that there is an
obvious better choice, something both eective and feasible that Obama somehow
missed, can only be predicated on the belief that the United States is omnipotent and
has, or can ever hope for, the power to bend rich and technically advanced sovereign
nations to our will. Utah’s elected ocials should have the smarts, and the political
capital, to explain to us that the hope for progress that Obama has tried to build with
this pact may be the best we can reasonably hope for. Unless they’d rather go to war.”
– Salt Lake Tribune, 7/17/15
West Virginia
Diplomacy Over War
“Without quite declaring it openly, top Republicans have clamored for America to
plunge into war with Iran, just as the previous GOP administration ruinously plunged
into war with Iraq. Now, thank heaven, the Obama administration has won a victory
that prevents another bloodbath. The treaty negotiated by Secretary of State John
Kerry will let international inspectors verify that Iran’s nuclear power program is
doing nothing that might put an atomic bomb into the hands of suicidal terrorists, or
governments.”
– Charleston Gazette-Mail, 7/15/15
What the World is Saying about the JCPOA
P5 + 1 Allies
UK
“After persistent diplomacy and tough sanctions, the international
community has delivered a historic deal with Iran…It has required
leadership, courage and determination on both sides. Now we must
ensure that this deal is fully implemented.”
– UK Prime Minister David Cameron
“You have to come back to the alternatives. If we had walked away
from this negotiation and not made compromises, I think we would
then see a nuclear-armed Iran”
– UK Prime Minister David Cameron
“This is well beyond what many of us thought possible even 18
months ago and a good basis for what I believe could be a very good
deal…”
– British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
“If you kill this deal, what is the alternative? I nd that the
response to that question is deeply unsatisfying, because all of the
alternatives, in my judgment, are worse.”
– Peter Westmacott, British Ambassador to the U.S.
France
The agreement had put an end to “one of the most serious and
longest crises on nuclear proliferation.” It also aimed, he said, to
provide “more peace and stability in the Middle East.”
– French Foreign Aairs Minister Laurent Fabius
“It’s A Very Important Deal That Was Signed Overnight, The World
Is Making Headway.
– British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
Germany
The agreement provides a “realistic chance of overcoming one of
the most dicult international conicts through diplomatic means”
and brings much closer the goal of preventing Iran from developing
nuclear weapons
– German Chancellor Angela Merkel
China
“The achievement of a comprehensive agreement on Iran rmly
defends the international regime of non-proliferation and is a
rewarding experience for resolving international disputes through
negotiation, as well as a positive signal to the world,”
– Xi Jinping, Chinese President
Russia
“We are condent that the world today breathed a sigh of relief.”
– Russian President Vladmir Putin
Former Israeli Security Ocials
“Without an agreement, Iran will be free to do as it pleases, while
the sanctions regime will anyway crumble, as many of the world’s
countries will rush to Tehran to sign protable contracts.”
– Efraim Halevy, Ex-Mossad Chief
“[W]hen it comes to Iran’s nuclear capability, this [deal] is the best
option…When negotiations began, Iran was two months away from
acquiring enough material for a bomb. Now it will be 12 months.”
– Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service
Other World Leaders
“I warmly welcome the historic agreement in Vienna today and
congratulate the P5+1 and Iran for reaching this agreement. This is
testament to the value of dialogue.”
– Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General, United Nations
“It is undoubtedly the most important diplomatic achievement
for years.”
– Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister, Sweden
“The agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme is viewed in a
positive light by the Holy See…”
– Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman
“This agreement makes everyone better-o.”
– Martin Schulz, European Parliament President
“We have established a very clear timetable. We have identied
measures. And more importantly, Iran has a strong incentive to
implement this roadmap.”
– Yukiya Amano, IAEA Director General
“We are currently in talks with the American government regarding
these details, but [the deal] seems to have achieved these objectives.”
– Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir
“This deal is important not only for the world, but for the region.”
– Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah
Jordan welcomed the agreement Iran and world powers have reached
over Tehran’s nuclear program and noted that the agreement will
hopefully “have a positive eect on all states in the region.”
– Jordan’s Ambassador to the UN, Dina Kawar.
“The government of the Republic of Korea welcomes the agreement
on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to resolve the
Iranian nuclear issue, reached between the P5+1….and Iran in Vienna
on July 14”
– Korean Foreign Ministry
Public statements of support from the following 92 countries:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria,
Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria,
Burundi, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, European
Union, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary,
India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo,
Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta,
Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia,
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan,
Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, UK, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
LETTERS AND
STATEMENTS
OF SUPPORT
Statement by National Security Leaders on the Announcement of
a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
July 20, 2015
We applaud the announcement that a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been
reached with Iran to limit its nuclear program. We congratulate President Obama and all the
negotiators for a landmark agreement unprecedented in its importance for preventing the
acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran.
Though primarily a nonproliferation agreement, the JCPOA has signicant implications for some of
America’s most important national objectives: regional stability in the Middle East, Israel’s security,
dealing with an untrustworthy and hostile nation, and U.S. leadership on major global challenges.
This JCPOA will put in place a set of constraints and monitoring measures that will help to assure
that Iran’s nuclear program will be for peaceful purposes only. Major U.S. objectives have been
achieved: uranium enrichment limited to 3.67 percent and only at the Natanz plant; the Arak
reactor will be re-designed to minimize the amount of plutonium produced and Iran is barred from
separating plutonium and all spent fuel will be removed from Iran; a 98 percent reduction in Iran’s
stockpile of low enriched uranium for 15 years; unprecedented surveillance of nuclear activities
and control of nuclear related imports; a two-thirds reduction in the installed centrifuges for ten
years; constraints on research and development of advanced centrifuges. The agreement will set up
a highly effective multilayered program to monitor and inspect every aspect of Iran’s nuclear supply
chain and fuel cycle, including continuous monitoring at some sites for 20-25 years, and permit
inspections on short notice. We have followed carefully the negotiations as they have progressed
and conclude that the JCPOA represents the achievement of greater security for us and our
partners in the region.
We acknowledge that the JCPOA does not achieve all of the goals its current detractors have set
for it. But it does meet all of the key objectives. Most importantly, should Iran violate the agreement
and move toward building nuclear weapons, it will be discovered early and in sufcient time for
strong countermeasures to be taken to stop Iran. No agreement between multiple parties can be
a perfect agreement without risks. We believe without this agreement, the risks to the security of
the U.S. and its friends would be far greater. We have also not heard any viable alternatives from
those who oppose the implementation of the JCPOA.
We, the undersigned, have devoted our careers to the peace and security of the United States in both
Republican and Democratic Administrations. U.S. presidents and Congresses over the past 20 years
have joined in a bipartisan policy of sanctioning and isolating Iran to prevent a nuclear weapon. There
was bipartisan understanding that when the Iranians indicated a readiness to talk the U.S. would lead
the negotiations to test Iran’s seriousness. Indeed the Corker-Cardin legislation, which was approved
this past spring by an overwhelming bipartisan vote in both the House and Senate was signed into
law by the President, denes the review process that the Congress will use over the coming months.
Members of both political parties can deservedly take credit for bringing us to this moment.
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THE IRAN PROJECT
We welcome the discussion that will unfold over the merits of this agreement. We urge members of
Congress to be closely involved in the oversight, monitoring and enforcement of this agreement. As
Congress was so diligent and constructive in pressing forward the highly effective sanctions regime
that helped get Iran to the table, it must now play a key role in the implementation of the agreement
which they helped bring about. Congressional approval will eventually be required to lift sanctions
under the agreement. Arrangements now need to be made to assure that Congress is a full partner
in its implementation.
Those who advocate rejection of the JCPOA should evaluate whether there is a feasible alternative
for better protecting U.S. security and more effectively preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weap-
on. The consequences of rejection are grave: the unraveling of international sanctions; U.S. responsibil-
ity for the collapse of the agreement; and the possible development of an Iranian nuclear weapon under
signicantly reduced or no inspections. A rejection of the agreement could leave the U.S. with the only
alternative of having to use military force unilaterally in the future.
We call on the Administration to place the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in a strategic context:
assuring our partners in the region that the United States remains fully committed to their defense
and to countering any destabilizing Iranian actions in the region. We also call on the Administration,
with the express support of the Congress, to make clear that it will remain the rm policy of the United
States, during the agreement’s initial 10 to 15 years as well as after key restrictions expire, to prevent
Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon by all available means.
We will join in a bipartisan effort to formulate a balanced and objective assessment and implementation
of this agreement. We are committed to building an effective strategy for its full implementation. This
effort will be critical in view of the agreement’s signicance for the protection of the security of the U.S.
and its friends and for preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Page 2
Amb. (ret.) Morton Abramowitz, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research and
Ambassador to Thailand and Turkey
Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
Samuel Berger, U.S. National Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, U.S. National Security Advisor
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Ambassador to Greece
BGen. (ret.) Stephen A. Cheney, U.S. Marine Corps
Joseph Cirincione, President of the Ploughshares Fund
Amb. (ret.) Chester A Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Amb. (ret.) Ryan Crocker, Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon
Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader
Suzanne DiMaggio, Director of the 21st Century Diplomacy Project at New America
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THE IRAN PROJECT
Amb. (ret.) James Dobbins, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Robert Einhorn, Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation and Secretary of State’s Special Advisor for
Nonproliferation and Arms Control
Amb. (ret.) Stuart E. Eizenstat, Deputy Treasury Secretary and Department of State’s Special Envoy for
Holocaust Issues in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Leslie Gelb, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Miliary Affairs and Director of Policy Planning and
Arms Control at the Department of Defense
Morton H. Halperin, Director of Policy Planning, Department of State
Lee H. Hamilton, U.S. House of Representatives and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Amb. (ret.) William C. Harrop, Ambassador to Israel and Inspector General of the State Department
Gary Hart, U.S. Senator and Special Envoy to Northern Ireland
Stephen B. Heintz, President, Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Amb. (ret.) Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacic Affairs and Ambassador
to Iraq, Korea, Poland, and Macedonia
Amb. (ret.) Carla A. Hills, U.S. Trade Representative
James Hoge, former Editor, Foreign Affairs Magazine
J. Bennett Johnston, U.S. Senator
Nancy Landon Kassebaum, U.S. Senator
LTG (ret.) Frank Kearney, U.S. Army
Amb. (ret.) Daniel Kurtzer, Ambassador to Israel and Egypt
Carl Levin, U.S. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services
Amb. (ret) John Limbert, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran
Amb. (ret.) Winston Lord, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacic, Ambassador to China
and Director of State Department Policy Planning
Amb. (ret.) William H. Luers, Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela
Richard G. Lugar, U.S. Senator and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Jessica T. Mathews, Director of the Ofce of Global Issues of the National Security Council
George J. Mitchell, U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader
Amb. (ret.) William G. Miller, Ambassador to Ukraine
Amb. (ret.) Richard W. Murphy, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Assistant Secretary of State for
Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs
Vali Nasr, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and Dean of Johns Hopkins University SAIS
Richard Nephew, Director for Iran, National Security Council and Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy at
the Department of State
Joseph Nye, Assistant Secretary of Defense, Chair, and Chairman National Intelligence Council
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End
For Press Inquiries Contact: iris bieri (212) 812- 4372
the iran project 475 riverside drive suite 900, new york, ny 10115
ema il: iranproject@fcsny.org
Paul O’Neill, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Admiral (ret.) Eric Olson, U.S. Navy and Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command
William Perry, U.S. Secretary of Defense
Amb. (ret.) Thomas Pickering, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs, and Ambassador to Israel, Russia, India, United Nations, El Salvador, Nigeria, and Jordan
Paul R. Pillar, National Intelligence Ofcer for the Near East and South Asia
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas Platt, Ambassador to Pakistan, Philipines, and Zambia
Joe R. Reeder, Deputy Secretary of the Army and Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission
Donald W. Riegle, U.S. Senator
William Reinsch, Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration and President National
Foreign Trade Council
Amb. (ret.) J. Stapleton Roy, Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research and Ambassador to China,
Indonesia, and Singapore
Barnett R. Rubin, Senior Adviser to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Karim Sadjadpour, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Gen. (ret.) Brent Scowcroft, U.S. National Security Advisor
RADM (ret.) Joe Sestak, U.S. Navy, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Requirements and Programs
Gary Sick, National Security Council Member for Iran and the Persian Gulf
Jim Slattery, U.S. House of Representatives
James R. Sasser, U.S. Senator and Ambassador to China
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Director of Policy Planning, the Department of State
Mark Udall, U.S. Senator
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas A. Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia and
Ambassador to Egypt and Jordan
Amb. (ret.) Edward S. Walker, Jr., Ambassador to Israel, Egypt, and United Arab Emirates
James Walsh, Research Associate at MIT’s Security Studies Program
Col. (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson, U.S. Army, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State
Timothy E. Wirth, U.S. Senator
Amb. (ret.) Frank Wisner, Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs and Ambassador to India,
Egypt, the Philippines and Zambia
* The signers of this statement were either former senior ofcials of the U.S. government or prominent national
security leaders who have not held senior government positions. The positions listed after the names of the former
government ofcials are senior posts held while in ofce. The positions listed after the names of those who were
not from the government are listed with their current position.
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Letter to the President from over 100 former American
Ambassadors on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
on Iran’s Nuclear Program.
Dear Mr. President:
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran stands as a landmark agreement in
deterring the proliferation of nuclear weapons. If properly implemented, this comprehensive and
rigorously negotiated agreement can be an effective instrument in arresting Iran’s nuclear program
and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the volatile and vitally important region of the
Middle East. Without your determination and the admirable work of Secretary of State Kerry and
his team, this agreement would never have been reached.
As former American diplomats, we have devoted much of our lives to ensuring that the President
had available the best possible diplomatic approaches to dealing with challenges to our nation’s
security, even while recognizing that a strong military is essential to help the President and the
Congress to carry out their duties to protect the nation and its people. Effective diplomacy backed
by credible defense will be critically important now, during the period of inspection and verication
of Iran’s compliance with the agreement.
The JCPOA touches on some of America’s most important national objectives: non-proliferation
and the security of our friends in the Middle East particularly Israel. Ensuring the cooperation and
implementation of this agreement by a hostile nation will require constant, dedicated U.S.
leadership and unagging attention.
We recognize that the JCPOA is not a perfect or risk-free settlement of this problem. However,
we believe without it, the risks to the security of the United States and our friends and allies would
be far greater. We are satised that the JCPOA will put in place a set of constraints and inspections
that can assure that Iran’s nuclear program during the terms of the agreement will remain only
for peaceful purposes and that no part of Iran is exempt from inspection. As with any negotiated
settlement, the most durable and effective agreement is one that all sides will commit to and
benet from over the long term.
We support close Congressional involvement in the oversight, monitoring and enforcement of
this agreement. Congress must be a full partner in its implementation and must evaluate carefully
the value and feasibility of any alternative that would claim better to protect U.S. security and
more effectively to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In particular, Congress must
give careful attention to evaluating whether alternatives would be more or less likely to narrow
the options for resolving this issue without the use of force.
In our judgment the JCPOA deserves Congressional support and the opportunity to show it can
work. We rmly believe that the most effective way to protect U.S. national security, and that of
Page 1
Amb. (ret.) Diego C. Asencio, Ambassador to Colombia and Brazil
Amb. (ret.) Adrian Basora, Ambassador to Czechoslovakia
J. Brian Atwood, Administrator of USAID and Under Secretary of State for Management
Amb. (ret.) William M. Bellamy, Ambassador to Kenya
Amb. (ret.) John R. Beyrle, Ambassador to Russia and Bulgaria
Amb. (ret.) James Keough Bishop, Ambassador to Niger, Liberia and Somalia
Amb. (ret.) Barbara K. Bodine, Ambassador to Yemen
Amb. (ret.) Avis Bohlen, Assistant Secretary for Arms Control
Amb. (ret.) Eric J. Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security
Amb. (ret.) Stephen Bosworth, Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Amb. (ret.) Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia
Amb. (ret.) Kenneth C. Brill, Ambassador to the IAEA, UN and founder of the U.S. National Counterproliferation Center
Amb (ret.) Kenneth L. Brown, Ambassador to Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, and Ghana
Amb. (ret.) A. Peter Burleigh, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas Burns, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador to Greece and NATO
Amb. (ret.) James F. Collins, Ambassador to the Russian Federation and Ambassador at Large for the
New Independent States
Amb. (ret.) Edwin G. Corr, Ambassador to Peru, Bolivia and El Salvador
Amb. (ret.) William Courtney, Commissioner, Bilateral Consultative Commission to implement the
Threshold Test Ban Treaty
Amb. (ret.) Ryan Crocker, Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon
Amb. (ret.) James B. Cunningham, Ambassador to Israel, Afghanistan and the United Nations
Amb. (ret.) Walter L. Cutler, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Tunisia
Amb. (ret.) Ruth A. Davis, Ambassador to the Republic of Benin and Director General of the Foreign Service
Amb. (ret.) John Gunther Dean, Ambassador to India
Amb. (ret.) Shaun Donnelly, Ambassador to Sri Lanka
Amb. (ret.) Harriet L. Elam-Thomas, Ambassador to Senegal
Amb. (ret.) Theodore L. Eliot Jr., Ambassador to Afghanistan
Amb. (ret.) Nancy Ely-Raphel, Ambassador to Slovenia
Amb. (ret.) Chas W. Freeman, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Defense and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Amb. (ret.) Robert Gallucci, Ambassador at Large
Amb. (ret.) Robert S. Gelbard, President’s Special Representative for the Balkans
David C. Gompert, former Acting Director of National Intelligence
Amb. (ret.) James E. Goodby, Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Security and Dismantlement, and
Ambassador to Finland
Amb. (ret.) Marc Grossman, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Ambassador to Turkey
Amb. (ret.) Brandon Grove, Director Foreign Service Institute
Amb. (ret.)William Harrop, Ambassador to Israel, Guinea, Kenya, and Seychelles
our allies and friends is to ensure that tough-minded diplomacy has a chance to succeed before
considering other more costly and risky alternatives.
With respect,
Page 2
Amb. (ret.) Ulric Haynes, Jr. Ambassador to Algeria
Amb. (ret.) Donald Hays, Ambassador to the United Nations
Amb. (ret.) Heather M. Hodges, Ambassador to Ecuador and Moldova
Amb. (ret.) Karl Hofmann, Ambassador to Togo
Amb. (ret.) Thomas C. Hubbard, Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
Amb. (ret.) Vicki Huddleston, Ambassador to Mali and Madagascar
Thomas L. Hughes, former Assistant Secetary of State for Intelligence and Research
Amb. (ret.) Dennis Jett, Ambassador to Mozambique and Peru
Amb. (ret.) Beth Jones, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia
Amb. (ret.) James R. Jones, Ambassador to Mexico and formerly Member of Congress and White House Chief of Staff
Amb. (ret.) Theodore Kattouf, Ambassador to Syria and United Arab Emirates
Amb. (ret.) Richard D. Kauzlarich, Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Amb. (ret.) Kenton W. Keith, Ambassador to Qatar
Amb. (ret.) Roger Kirk, Ambassador to Romania and Somalia
Amb. (ret.) John C. Kornblum, Ambassador to Germany and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs
Amb. (ret.) Eleni Kounalakis, Ambassador to Hungary
Amb. (ret.) Daniel Kurtzer, Ambassador to Israel and Egypt
Amb. (ret.) Bruce Laingen, Chargé d’Affaires in Tehran (1979)
Frank E. Loy, Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Amb. (ret.) William Luers, Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela
Amb. (ret.) Princeton N. Lyman, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
Amb. (ret.) John F. Maisto, Ambassador to Organization of American States, Venezuela, Nicaragua
Amb. (ret.) Jack Matlock, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Special Assistant to the
President for National Security
Amb. (ret.) Donald F. McHenry, United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Amb. (ret.) Thomas E. McNamara, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Ambassador to
Colombia, and at Large for Counterterrorism
Amb. (ret.) William B. Milam, Ambassador to Pakistan and Bangladesh
Amb. (ret.) Tom Miller, Ambassador to Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina
Amb. (ret.) George E. Moose, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador to Benin, Senegal
Amb. (ret.) Cameron Munter, Ambassador to Pakistan and Serbia
Amb. (ret.) Richard Murphy, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and
Ambassador to Saudi Arabia
Amb. (ret.) Ronald E. Neumann, Ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria, and Bahrain
Amb. (ret.) Thomas M. T. Niles, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Canada and Ambassador to Greece
Phyllis E. Oakley, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Amb. (ret.) W. Robert Pearson, Ambassador to Turkey
Amb. (ret.) Robert H. Pelletreau, Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affair
Amb. (ret.) Pete Peterson, Ambassador to Vietnam
Amb. (ret.) Thomas Pickering, Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Ambassador to Israel, Russia,
India, United Nations, El Salvador, Nigeria and Jordan
Page 3
End
For Press Inquiries Contact: iris bieri (212) 812- 4372
the iran project 475 riverside drive suite 900, new york, ny 10115
ema il: iranproject@fcsny.org
Amb. (ret.) Joan M. Plaisted, Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Kitibati
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas Platt, Ambassador to Pakistan, Philippines, and Zambia
Amb. (ret.) Anthony Quainton, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic security or Director General of
the Foreign Service
Amb. (ret.) Robin L. Raphel, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia
Amb. (ret.) Charles A. Ray, Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
POW/Missing Personnel Affairs
Amb (ret.) Arlene Render, Ambassador to The Gambia, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire
Amb. (ret.) Julissa Reynoso, Ambassador to Uruguay
Amb. (ret.) Francis J. Ricciardone, Ambassador to Egypt, Turkey, the Philippines, and Palau
Amb. (ret.) Rozanne L. Ridgway, Assistant Secretary for Europe and Canada and Counselor of the Department
Amb. (ret.) Peter F. Romero, Assistant Secretary of State
Amb. (ret.) Theodore Sedgwick, Ambassador to Slovakia
Amb. (ret.) J. Stapleton Roy, Ambassador to China and Indonesia
Amb. (ret.) William A. Rugh, Ambassador to Yemen and the United Arab Emirates
Amb. (ret.) Janet A Sanderson, Ambassador to Algeria and Haiti
Amb. (ret.) Teresita C. Schaffer, Ambassador to Sri Lanka
Amb. (ret.) Howard B. Schaffer, Ambassador to Bangladesh
Amb. (ret.) Raymond G. H. Seitz, Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Amb. (ret.) John Shattuck, Ambassador to the Czech Republic
Amb. (ret.) Ronald I. Spiers, Ambassador to Pakistan, Turkey and Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs
Amb. (ret.) William Lacy Swing, Ambassador to South Africa, Nigeria, Haiti, Congo-DRC, Liberia, and
Republic of Congo
Amb. (ret.) Patrick Nickolas Theros, Ambassador to the State of Qatar
Arturo A. Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Special Assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs
Amb. (ret.) William J. Vanden Heuvel, Deputy Permanent United States Representative to the United Nations
Amb. (ret.) Nicholas A. Veliotes, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs
Amb. (ret.) Richard N. Viets, Ambassador to Jordan
Amb. (ret.) Edward S. Walker, Jr., Ambassador to Israel, Egypt and United Arab Emirates
Amb. (ret.) Alexander F. Watson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and
Ambassador to Peru
Amb. (ret.) Melissa Wells, Ambassador to Estonia, DRC-Congo, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau
Amb. (ret.) Philip C. Wilcox Junior, Ambassador at Large for Counter Terrorism
Molly K. Williamson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Defense, and Commerce
Amb. (ret.) Frank Wisner, Ambassador to India, Egypt, the Philippines and Zambia, and Under Secretary of
State for International Security Affairs
Amb. (ret.) John Wolf, Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation
Amb. (ret.) Kenneth Yalowitz, Ambassador to Belarus and Georgia
* All the above signers have retired from the US Government and the positions listed after their names are some of
those held while in ofce.
JULY 17, 2015
Atlantic Council Iran Task Force Voices Support of the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) While Urging Vigilant
Implementation
The Iran Task Force of the Atlantic Council supports the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA) announced in Vienna this week and applauds the bold intent and intense
efforts of President Barack Obama and his team of diplomats and scientists who worked so
hard to bring it to fruition.
This Task Force has worked for five years on Iran-related issues and has accumulated a
great deal of knowledge, insight and understanding of these issues from Iran’s internal
political developments to the impact of sanctions on the Iranian economy, with a special
focus on the challenges raised by Iran’s nuclear program. We have held more than fifty
seminars and other events with a wide-range of experts and published more than a dozen
issue briefs and reports, including a groundbreaking 2013 study that has informed US policy
and that we hope will continue to do so going forward.
At the same time we support the JCPOA, we believe it is necessary to view the agreement
with a clear-eyed, realistic perspective, wishing for the best outcome but also being
prepared for less-favorable scenarios given past Iranian conduct. We hope that
our colleagues in Congress will share this objective with a non-partisan appraisal of the
agreement.
It is our hope that Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus
Germany will fully comply with their pledges in the JCPOA. On Iran’s side, these include its
promises to satisfy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the possible
military dimensions of its nuclear program, its acceptance of the Additional Protocol of the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and its pledge to turn away permanently from any temptation to
acquire a nuclear weapon, not just during the term of the agreement but after its expiration.
We also hope that the large sums of money that will come to Iran following the lifting of
sanctions will be used for internal development and the betterment of its citizens, not for
further support for groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.
It is also a requirement that the U.S. government be vigilant against any obstruction of IAEA
inspections of declared or suspect sites and recognize the difficulty of “snapping back”
sanctions if there are violations. We believe it is critical that the US government take actions
to deal with the significant opposition to this agreement from our closest Arab allies in the
Middle East and from Israel, which views an Iranian nuclear weapon as an existential threat.
The US government, working with its European allies, must act urgently to insure that the
JCPOA does not ignite a new nuclear arms race in the volatile Middle East, and that the
end of the multilateral conventional arms embargo and missile embargo on Iran in five and
eight years respectively does not threaten American interests in the region or those of our
allies. The United States must provide our allies with the means necessary to defend
themselves against threats from Iran and its proxies. Iran must also know that the United
States views Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon during or after the expiration of the
JCPOA as unacceptable, and will take all actions necessary to assure against this
contingency.
Still, we come to the conclusion, even in a worst or most likely a mixed case scenario, that
this agreement is better than the alternatives if the JCPOA is rejected. We would be left with
only a military option, which may be necessary if Iran actually marches toward a nuclear
weapon.
We believe that additional sanctions are not likely to produce a significantly improved
agreement. The reason is that we already have the most extensive, comprehensive
sanctions ever exacted against a country in peacetime, and there are few others available
to the United States. Moreover, it is highly doubtful that the European Union, China and
Russia, whose cooperation in imposing sanctions has been critical to getting Iran to
seriously negotiate and make the significant compromises embodied in the JCPOA, would
support additional sanctions in the absence of Iranian misdemeanor. Even during the
sanctions period, Iran continued to increase the number of centrifuges, to work on more
advanced centrifuges, and to begin a plutonium facility at Arak.
Most important, with no agreement, there would be no significant reduction in Iran’s 19,000
installed centrifuges; no redesign of its Arak reactor; no intrusive IAEA inspections; and no
elongation of its breakout period from several months to a year.
As a result, this Task Force supports the administration and the implementation of the
JCPOA, while urging special vigilance against any violations of its terms.
Signed: Stuart Eizenstat, Task Force Chair; Odeh Aburdene, Cornelius Adebahr, James
Cartwright, Joseph Cirincione, Ilan Goldenberg, John Limbert, Jim Moody, William Reinsch,
Richard Sawaya, Thomas Pickering, Greg Thielmann and Harlan Ullman
Letter to Congressional Leadership from Former Under Secretaries
of State and former American Ambassadors to Israel on the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action
July 27, 2015
Dear Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Pelosi:
As former United States ambassadors to Israel and former Under Secretaries of State, we have
worked throughout our careers to strengthen and deepen the bonds between the United States and
Israel. Our firm instructions in every administration we served, reflecting American national
interests and values, were to help assure Israel’s well-being and safety.
It is our commitment to this enduring objective of American policy that motivates us now to write
in support of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached by the five permanent
United Nations Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1). We are persuaded that this
agreement will put in place a set of constraints and monitoring measures that will arrest Iran’s
nuclear program for at least fifteen years and assure that this agreement will leave Iran no legitimate
avenue to produce a nuclear weapon during the next ten to fifteen years. This landmark agreement
removes the threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to the region and to Israel specifically.
We acknowledge that the JCPOA does not achieve all of the goals its current detractors have set for
it. But it does meet all of the key goals required for high confidence that, should Iran violate it and
move toward building a nuclear weapon, the international intelligence community and the IAEA will
discover Iran’s actions early and in sufficient time for strong countermeasures to be taken to stop
Iran’s activities. No agreement between multiple parties can be perfect or without risks. We believe
that without this agreement, however, the risks will be much higher for the United States and Israel.
We see no fatal flaws that should call for the rejection of this agreement and have not heard any
viable alternatives from those who oppose the implementation of the JCPOA.
Those who advocate rejection of the JCPOA should assess carefully the value and feasibility of any
alternative strategy to meet the goal of better protecting the security of the U.S. and Israel and more
effectively prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The consequences of rejection are grave:
U.S. responsibility for the collapse of the agreement; the inability to hold the P5+1 together for the
essential international sanctions regime and such other action that may be required against Iran; and
the real possibility that Iran will decide to build a nuclear weapon under significantly reduced or no
inspections. The rejection of this agreement could lead to the U.S. having to use military force
without the support of other allies and without the understanding of the international community.
Because there is so little trust that Iran will remain in full compliance with the agreement, the U.S.
must remain alert and continue to monitor Iran’s actions carefully. The President and Secretary
Kerry have made clear that the U.S. and others will take all steps necessary to assure that Iran does
not violate its commitments including to enrich enough highly enriched uranium to build a nuclear
weapon. If the extensive monitoring and verification system in the JCPOA is carried out faithfully,
then a greatly restrained Iran will be unable to pose a credible military threat to Israel. Additionally,
decades of constant American support of Israel’s security requirements now assure that Israel’s well-
known and fully understood strategic military capabilities are far superior to those of Iran. This
should remain the case in the future.
The Administration must make clear that it will remain the firm policy of the United States during
the agreement and beyond, to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon by all necessary means.
During the implementation period of the JCPOA, it is essential that Israel remain assured by the
Administration of the enduring and unequivocal American commitment to its security and well-
being. The prevention of a nuclear-armed Iran must remain a highest priority of U.S. policy in the
Middle East.
Sincerely,
R. Nicholas Burns, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Ambassador to NATO
James Cunningham, former Ambassador to Israel
William Harrop, former Ambassador to Israel
Daniel Kurtzer, former Ambassador to Israel
Thomas R. Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former Ambassador
to Israel
Edward S. Walker Jr., former Ambassador to Israel
Frank G. Wisner, former Under Secretary of State for International Security Affairs and Under
Secretary of Defense for Policy
!
!
Committee on International Justice and Peace
3211 FOURTH STREET NE
•
WASHINGTON DC 20017-1194
•
202-541-3160
WEBSITE: WWW.USCCB.ORG/JPHD
•
FAX 202-541-3339
July 14, 2015
United House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
As Chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, I welcome the momentous agreement just reached between the United States
and its P5+1 partners with Iran. This significant achievement aims to curb Iran’s development of
nuclear weapons while allowing them to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
More importantly, this agreement signals progress in global nuclear non-proliferation. In January
2015, Pope Francis said, “I express my hope that a definitive agreement may soon be reached
between Iran and the P5+1 Group regarding the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and
my appreciation of the efforts already made in this regard.”
Since 2007, our Committee on International Justice and Peace, reflecting the longstanding
position of the Holy See, has urged our nation to pursue diplomacy to ensure Iran’s compliance
with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. For years, we have supported
dialogue and a negotiated resolution of the conflict in collaboration with international partners.
It is no small achievement that the United States, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation,
China, Germany and France have reached this agreement with Iran. We hope that the full
implementation of the agreement will gradually foster an environment in which all parties build
mutual confidence and trust, so that progress will be made toward greater stability and dialogue
in the region. In that spirit, our Committee will continue to urge Congress to endorse the result
of these intense negotiations because the alternative leads toward armed conflict, an outcome of
profound concern to the Church.
The United States and its international partners have taken a remarkable step with Iran in
reaching this agreement. We encourage Congress to support these efforts to build bridges that
foster peace and greater understanding. In the words of Pope Francis, may the negotiated
framework “be a definitive step toward a more security and fraternal world,” a goal we all share.
Sincerely yours,
Most Reverend Oscar Cantú
Bishop of Las Cruces
Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Committee on International Justice and Peace
3211 FOURTH STREET NE
•
WASHINGTON DC 20017-1194
•
202-541-3160
WEBSITE: WWW.USCCB.ORG/JPHD
•
FAX 202-541-3339
July 14, 2015
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator:
As Chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, I welcome the momentous agreement just reached between the United States
and its P5+1 partners with Iran. This significant achievement aims to curb Iran’s development of
nuclear weapons while allowing them to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
More importantly, this agreement signals progress in global nuclear non-proliferation. In January
2015, Pope Francis said, “I express my hope that a definitive agreement may soon be reached
between Iran and the P5+1 Group regarding the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and
my appreciation of the efforts already made in this regard.”
Since 2007, our Committee on International Justice and Peace, reflecting the longstanding
position of the Holy See, has urged our nation to pursue diplomacy to ensure Iran’s compliance
with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. For years, we have supported
dialogue and a negotiated resolution of the conflict in collaboration with international partners.
It is no small achievement that the United States, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation,
China, Germany and France have reached this agreement with Iran. We hope that the full
implementation of the agreement will gradually foster an environment in which all parties build
mutual confidence and trust, so that progress will be made toward greater stability and dialogue
in the region. In that spirit, our Committee will continue to urge Congress to endorse the result
of these intense negotiations because the alternative leads toward armed conflict, an outcome of
profound concern to the Church.
The United States and its international partners have taken a remarkable step with Iran in
reaching this agreement. We encourage Congress to support these efforts to build bridges that
foster peace and greater understanding. In the words of Pope Francis, may the negotiated
framework “be a definitive step toward a more security and fraternal world,” a goal we all share.
Sincerely yours,
Most Reverend Oscar Cantú
Bishop of Las Cruces
Chairman, Committee on International Justice and Peace
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
APPENDIX
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release July 14, 2015
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON IRAN
State Floor
THE PRESIDENT: Today, after two years of negotiations, the
United States, together with our international partners, has
achieved something that decades of animosity has not -- a
comprehensive, long-term deal with Iran that will prevent it
from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
This deal demonstrates that American diplomacy can bring
about real and meaningful change -- change that makes our
country, and the world, safer and more secure. This deal is
also in line with a tradition of American leadership. It’s now
more than 50 years since President Kennedy stood before the
American people and said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear,
but let us never fear to negotiate.” He was speaking then about
the need for discussions between the United States and the
Soviet Union, which led to efforts to restrict the spread of
nuclear weapons.
In those days, the risk was a catastrophic nuclear war
between two super powers. In our time, the risk is that nuclear
weapons will spread to more and more countries, particularly in
the Middle East, the most volatile region in our world.
Today, because America negotiated from a position of
strength and principle, we have stopped the spread of nuclear
weapons in this region. Because of this deal, the international
community will be able to verify that the Islamic Republic of
Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon.
This deal meets every single one of the bottom lines that
we established when we achieved a framework earlier this
spring. Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off. And the
inspection and transparency regime necessary to verify that
objective will be put in place. Because of this deal, Iran will
not produce the highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade
plutonium that form the raw materials necessary for a nuclear
bomb.
Because of this deal, Iran will remove two-thirds of its
installed centrifuges -- the machines necessary to produce
highly enriched uranium for a bomb -- and store them under
constant international supervision. Iran will not use its
advanced centrifuges to produce enriched uranium for the next
decade. Iran will also get rid of 98 percent of its stockpile
of enriched uranium.
To put that in perspective, Iran currently has a stockpile
that could produce up to 10 nuclear weapons. Because of this
deal, that stockpile will be reduced to a fraction of what would
be required for a single weapon. This stockpile limitation will
last for 15 years.
Because of this deal, Iran will modify the core of its
reactor in Arak so that it will not produce weapons-grade
plutonium. And it has agreed to ship the spent fuel from the
reactor out of the country for the lifetime of the reactor. For
at least the next 15 years, Iran will not build any new heavy-
water reactors.
Because of this deal, we will, for the first time, be in a
position to verify all of these commitments. That means this
deal is not built on trust; it is built on
verification. Inspectors will have 24/7 access to Iran’s key
nuclear facilities.
*Iran [Inspectors] will have access to Iran’s entire
nuclear supply chain -- its uranium mines and mills, its
conversion facility, and its centrifuge manufacturing and
storage facilities. This ensures that Iran will not be able to
divert materials from known facilities to covert ones. Some of
these transparency measures will be in place for 25 years.
Because of this deal, inspectors will also be able to
access any suspicious location. Put simply, the organization
responsible for the inspections, the IAEA, will have access
where necessary, when necessary. That arrangement is
permanent. And the IAEA has also reached an agreement with Iran
to get access that it needs to complete its investigation into
the possible military dimensions of Iran’s past nuclear
research.
Finally, Iran is permanently prohibited from pursuing a
nuclear weapon under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which
provided the basis for the international community’s efforts to
apply pressure on Iran.
As Iran takes steps to implement this deal, it will receive
relief from the sanctions that we put in place because of Iran’s
nuclear program -- both America’s own sanctions and sanctions
imposed by the United Nations Security Council. This relief
will be phased in. Iran must complete key nuclear steps before
it begins to receive new sanctions relief. And over the course
of the next decade, Iran must abide by the deal before
additional sanctions are lifted, including five years for
restrictions related to arms, and eight years for restrictions
related to ballistic missiles.
All of this will be memorialized and endorsed in a new
United Nations Security Council resolution. And if Iran
violates the deal, all of these sanctions will snap back into
place. So there’s a very clear incentive for Iran to follow
through, and there are very real consequences for a violation.
That's the deal. It has the full backing of the
international community. Congress will now have an opportunity
to review the details, and my administration stands ready to
provide extensive briefings on how this will move forward.
As the American people and Congress review the deal, it
will be important to consider the alternative. Consider what
happens in a world without this deal. Without this deal, there
is no scenario where the world joins us in sanctioning Iran
until it completely dismantles its nuclear program. Nothing we
know about the Iranian government suggests that it would simply
capitulate under that kind of pressure. And the world would not
support an effort to permanently sanction Iran into
submission. We put sanctions in place to get a diplomatic
resolution, and that is what we have done.
Without this deal, there would be no agreed-upon
limitations for the Iranian nuclear program. Iran could
produce, operate and test more and more centrifuges. Iran could
fuel a reactor capable of producing plutonium for a bomb. And
we would not have any of the inspections that allow us to detect
a covert nuclear weapons program. In other words, no deal means
no lasting constraints on Iran’s nuclear program.
Such a scenario would make it more likely that other
countries in the region would feel compelled to pursue their own
nuclear programs, threatening a nuclear arms race in the most
volatile region of the world. It would also present the United
States with fewer and less effective options to prevent Iran
from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
I've been President and Commander-in-Chief for over six
years now. Time and again, I have faced decisions about whether
or not to use military force. It's the gravest decision that
any President has to make. Many times, in multiple countries, I
have decided to use force. And I will never hesitate to do so
when it is in our national security interest. I strongly
believe that our national security interest now depends upon
preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon -- which means
that without a diplomatic resolution, either I or a future U.S.
President would face a decision about whether or not to allow
Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon or whether to use our military
to stop it.
Put simply, no deal means a greater chance of more war in
the Middle East. Moreover, we give nothing up by testing
whether or not this problem can be solved peacefully. If, in a
worst-case scenario, Iran violates the deal, the same options
that are available to me today will be available to any U.S.
President in the future. And I have no doubt that 10 or 15
years from now, the person who holds this office will be in a
far stronger position with Iran further away from a weapon and
with the inspections and transparency that allow us to monitor
the Iranian program.
For this reason, I believe it would be irresponsible to
walk away from this deal. But on such a tough issue, it is
important that the American people and their representatives in
Congress get a full opportunity to review the deal. After all,
the details matter. And we've had some of the finest nuclear
scientists in the world working through those details. And
we're dealing with a country -- Iran -- that has been a sworn
adversary of the United States for over 35 years. So I welcome
a robust debate in Congress on this issue, and I welcome
scrutiny of the details of this agreement.
But I will remind Congress that you don't make deals like
this with your friends. We negotiated arms control agreements
with the Soviet Union when that nation was committed to our
destruction. And those agreements ultimately made us safer.
I am confident that this deal will meet the national
security interest of the United States and our allies. So I
will veto any legislation that prevents the successful
implementation of this deal.
We do not have to accept an inevitable spiral into
conflict. And we certainly shouldn’t seek it. And precisely
because the stakes are so high, this is not the time for
politics or posturing. Tough talk from Washington does not
solve problems. Hard-nosed diplomacy, leadership that has
united the world’s major powers offers a more effective way to
verify that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon.
Now, that doesn’t mean that this deal will resolve all of
our differences with Iran. We share the concerns expressed by
many of our friends in the Middle East, including Israel and the
Gulf States, about Iran’s support for terrorism and its use of
proxies to destabilize the region. But that is precisely why we
are taking this step -- because an Iran armed with a nuclear
weapon would be far more destabilizing and far more dangerous to
our friends and to the world.
Meanwhile, we will maintain our own sanctions related to
Iran’s support for terrorism, its ballistic missile program, and
its human rights violations. We will continue our unprecedented
efforts to strengthen Israel’s security -- efforts that go
beyond what any American administration has done before. And we
will continue the work we began at Camp David to elevate our
partnership with the Gulf States to strengthen their
capabilities to counter threats from Iran or terrorist groups
like ISIL.
However, I believe that we must continue to test whether or
not this region, which has known so much suffering, so much
bloodshed, can move in a different direction.
Time and again, I have made clear to the Iranian people
that we will always be open to engagement on the basis of mutual
interests and mutual respect. Our differences are real and the
difficult history between our nations cannot be ignored. But it
is possible to change. The path of violence and rigid ideology,
a foreign policy based on threats to attack your neighbors or
eradicate Israel -- that's a dead end. A different path, one of
tolerance and peaceful resolution of conflict, leads to more
integration into the global economy, more engagement with the
international community, and the ability of the Iranian people
to prosper and thrive.
This deal offers an opportunity to move in a new
direction. We should seize it.
We have come a long way to reach this point -- decades of
an Iranian nuclear program, many years of sanctions, and many
months of intense negotiation. Today, I want to thank the
members of Congress from both parties who helped us put in place
the sanctions that have proven so effective, as well as the
other countries who joined us in that effort.
I want to thank our negotiating partners -- the United
Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, as well as the European
Union -- for our unity in this effort, which showed that the
world can do remarkable things when we share a vision of
peacefully addressing conflicts. We showed what we can do when
we do not split apart.
And finally, I want to thank the American negotiating
team. We had a team of experts working for several weeks
straight on this, including our Secretary of Energy, Ernie
Moniz. And I want to particularly thank John Kerry, our
Secretary of State, who began his service to this country more
than four decades ago when he put on our uniform and went off to
war. He’s now making this country safer through his commitment
to strong, principled American diplomacy.
History shows that America must lead not just with our
might, but with our principles. It shows we are stronger not
when we are alone, but when we bring the world
together. Today’s announcement marks one more chapter in this
pursuit of a safer and more helpful and more hopeful world.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States
of America.
END
1
Key Excerpts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
Preamble and General Provisions
• The full implementation of this JCPOA will ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of
Iran’s nuclear program.
• Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop, or acquire any
nuclear weapons.
• This JCPOA will produce the comprehensive lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions
as well as multilateral and national sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program.
• A Joint Commission consisting of the E3/EU+3 and Iran will be established to monitor
the implementation of this JCPOA and will carry out the functions provided for in this
JCPOA.
• The IAEA will be requested to monitor and verify the voluntary nuclear-related measures
as detailed in this JCPOA. The IAEA will be requested to provide regular updates to the
Board of Governors, and as provided for in this JCPOA, to the UN Security Council.
• The E3+3 will submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council endorsing this
JCPOA affirming that conclusion of this JCPOA marks a fundamental shift in its
consideration of this issue and expressing its desire to build a new relationship with Iran.
Nuclear
Enrichment, Enrichment R&D, Stockpiles
• Iran’s long term plan includes certain agreed limitations on all uranium enrichment and
uranium enrichment-related activities including certain limitations on specific research
and development (R&D) activities for the first 8 years, to be followed by gradual
evolution, at a reasonable pace, to the next stage of its enrichment activities for
exclusively peaceful purposes.
• Iran will begin phasing out its IR-1 centrifuges in 10 years. During this period, Iran will
keep its enrichment capacity at Natanz at up to a total installed uranium enrichment
capacity of 5060 IR-1 centrifuges. Excess centrifuges and enrichment-related
infrastructure at Natanz will be stored under IAEA continuous monitoring.
(Note: Iran currently has about 19,000 IR-1 and advanced IR-2M centrifuges installed)
• Based on its long-term plan, for 15 years, Iran will keep its level of uranium enrichment
at up to 3.67%.
(Note: Prior to the Joint Plan of Action, Iran enriched uranium to near 20%)
2
• Iran will refrain from any uranium enrichment and uranium enrichment R&D and from
keeping any nuclear material at Fordow for 15 years.
(Note: Iran currently has about 2,700 IR-1 centrifuges installed at Fordow of which
about 700 are enriching uranium)
• Iran will convert the Fordow facility into a nuclear, physics and technology center.
• 1044 IR-I machines in six cascades will remain in one wing at Fordow. Two of those six
cascades will spin without uranium and will be transitioned, including through
appropriate infrastructure modification, for stable isotope production. The other four
cascades with all associated infrastructure will remind idle.
• During the 15 year period, Iran will keep its uranium stockpile under 300 kg of up to
3.67% enriched UF
6
or the equivalent in other chemical forms.
(Note: Iran currently maintains a stockpile of about 10,000 kg of low-enriched UF
6
)
• All other centrifuges and enrichment-related infrastructure will be removed and stored
under IAEA continuous monitoring.
Arak, Heavy Water, Reprocessing
• Iran will design and rebuild a modernized heavy water research reactor in Arak, based on
an agreed conceptual design, using fuel enrichment up to 3.67%, in the form of an
international partnership which will certify the final design. The reactor will support
peaceful nuclear research and radioisotope production for medical and instructional
purposes. The redesigned and rebuilt Arak reactor will not produce weapons grade
plutonium.
• Iran plans to keep pace with the trend of international technological advancement in
relying on light water for its future power and research with enhanced international
cooperation including assurance of supply of necessary fuel.
• There will be no additional heavy water reactors or accumulation of heavy water in Iran
for 15 years.
• Iran intends to ship out all spent fuel for all future and present power and research nuclear
reactors.
Transparency and Confidence Building Measures
• Iran will provisionally apply the Additional Protocol to its Comprehensive Safeguards
Agreement in accordance with Article 17 b) of the Additional Protocol.
• Iran will fully implement the “Roadmap for Clarification of Past and Present Outstanding
Issues” agreed with the IAEA, containing arrangements to address past and present issues
of concern relating to its nuclear program.
3
• Iran will allow the IAEA to monitor the implementation of the above voluntary measures
for their respective durations, as well as to implement transparency measures, as set out
by the JCPOA and its Annexes. These measures include: a long-term presence in Iran;
IAEA monitoring of uranium ore concentrate produced by Iran from all uranium ore
concentrate plants for 25 years; containment and surveillance of centrifuge rotors and
bellows for 20 years; use of IAEA approved and certified modern technologies including
on-line enrichment measure and electronic seals; and a reliable mechanism to ensure
speedy resolution of IAEA access concerns for 15 years, as defined in Annex I.
• Iran will not engage in activities, including at the R&D level, that could contribute to the
development of a nuclear explosive device, including uranium or plutonium metallurgy
activities.
• Iran will cooperate and act in accordance with the procurement channel in this JCPOA, as
detailed in Annex IV, endorsed by the UN Security Council resolution.
Sanctions
• The UN Security Council resolution endorsing the JCPOA will terminate all the
provisions of the previous UN Security Council resolutions on the Iranian nuclear issue
simultaneously with the IAEA-verified implementation of agreed nuclear-related
measures by Iran and will establish specific restrictions.
• The EU will terminate all provisions of the EU Regulation, as subsequently amended,
implementing all the nuclear related economic and financial sanctions, including related
designations, simultaneously with IAEA-verified implementation of agreed nuclear-
related measures by Iran as specified in Annex V.
• The United States will cease the application, and will continue to do so, in accordance
with the JCPOA, of the sanctions specified in Annex II, to take effect simultaneously
with the IAEA-verified implementation of the agreed upon related measures by Iran as
specified in Appendix V.
(Note: U.S. statutory sanctions focused on Iran’s support for terrorism, human rights
abuses, and missile activities will remain in effect and continue to be enforced.)
• Eight years after Adoption Day or when the IAEA has reached the Broader Conclusion
that all the nuclear material in Iran remains in peaceful activities, whichever is earlier, the
United States will seek such legislative action as may be appropriate to terminate or
modify to effectuate the termination of sanctions specified in Annex II.
Implementation Plan
• Finalization Day is the date on which negotiations of this JCPOA are concluded among
the E3/EU+3 and Iran, to be followed promptly by submission of the resolution
endorsing this JCPOA to the UN Security Council for adoption without delay.
4
• Adoption Day is the date 90 days after the endorsement of this JCPOA by the UN
Security Council, or such earlier date as may be determined by mutual consent of the
JCPOA participants, at which time this JCPOA and the commitments in this JCPOA
come into effect.
• Implementation Day is the date on which, simultaneously with the IAEA report verifying
implementation by Iran of the nuclear-related measures described in Sections 15.1 to
15.11 of Annex V, the EU and the United States takes the actions described in Sections
16 and 17 of Annex V.
• Transition Day is day 8 years after Adoption Day or the date on which the Director
General of the IAEA submits a report stating that the IAEA has reached the Broader
Conclusion that all nuclear material in Iran remains in peaceful activities, whichever is
earlier.
• UN Security Council resolution termination day is the date on which the UN Security
Council resolution endorsing this JCPOA terminates according to its terms, which is to be
10 years from Adoption Day.
Dispute Resolution Mechanism
• If Iran believed that any or all of the E3/EU+3 were not meeting their commitments
under this JCPOA, Iran could refer the issue to the Joint Commission for resolution;
similarly, if any of the E3/EU+3 believed that Iran was not meeting its commitments
under the JCPOA, any of the E3/EU+3 can do the same. The Joint Commission would
have 15 days to resolve the issue, unless the time period was extended by consensus.
• After Joint Commission consideration, any participant could refer the issue to ministers
of foreign affairs, if it believed the compliance issue had not been resolved. Ministers
would have 15 days to resolve the issue, unless the time period was extended by
consensus.
• If the issue has still not been resolved to the satisfaction of the complaining participant,
and if the complaining participant deems the issue to constitute significant non-
performance, then that participant could treat the unresolved issue as grounds to cease
performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part and / or notify the UN
Security Council that it believes the issue constitutes significant non-performance.
###
Press Availability on Nuclear Deal With Iran
Press Availability
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Austria Center
Vienna, Austria
July 14, 2015
SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good afternoon everybody. I want to begin by thanking you, as others have, for your
extraordinary patience. I know this has been a long couple of weeks for everybody, including, above all, the press,
who have waited long hours during the day for very little news, and we’re very grateful for your patience. This is an
historic day, but for me, it’s an historic day because it represents the first time in six weeks that I’ve worn a pair of
shoes. (Laughter.)
Today, in announcing a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States, our P5+1 and EU partners, and Iran
have taken a measureable step away from the prospect of nuclear proliferation, towards transparency and
cooperation. It is a step away from the specter of conflict and towards the possibility of peace.
This moment has been a long time coming, and we have worked very hard to get here. A resolution to this type of
challenge never comes easily – not when the stakes are so high, not when the issues are so technical, and not when
each decision affects global and regional security so directly. The fact is that the agreement we’ve reached, fully
implemented, will bring insight and accountability to Iran’s nuclear program – not for a small number of years but for
the lifetime of that program. This is the good deal that we have sought.
Believe me, had we been willing to settle for a lesser deal, we would have finished this negotiation a long time ago.
But we were not. All of us – not just the United States, but France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, China, and
the EU – were determined to get this right. And so we have been patient, and I believe our persistence has paid off.
A few months ago in Lausanne, we and our international partners joined Iran in announcing a series of parameters to
serve as the contours of a potential deal. Experts and commentators were, in fact, surprised by all that we had
achieved at that point. After three more months of long days and late nights, I’m pleased to tell you that we have
stayed true to those contours and we have now finally carved in the details.
Now I want to be very clear: The parameters that we announced in Lausanne not only remain intact and form the
backbone of the agreement that we reached today, but through the detail, they have been amplified in ways that
make this agreement even stronger.
That includes the sizable reduction of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and the number of centrifuges that it
operates.
It also guarantees that Iran’s breakout time – the time it would take for Iran to speed up its enrichment and produce
enough fissile material for just one nuclear weapon – that time will increase to at least one year for a period of at least
10 years.
And contrary to the assertions of some, this agreement has no sunset. It doesn’t terminate. It will be implemented in
phases – beginning within 90 days of the UN Security Council endorsing the deal, and some of the provisions are in
place for 10 years, others for 15 year, others for 25 years. And certain provisions – including many of the
transparency measures and prohibitions on nuclear work – will stay in place permanently.
But most importantly, this agreement addresses Iran’s potential pathways to fissile material for a bomb exactly as we
said it would – with appropriate limitations and transparency in order to assure the world of the peaceful nature of
Iran’s nuclear program.
Now, let me explain exactly how it will accomplish that goal.
To start, the participants have agreed Iran will not produce or acquire either highly enriched uranium or weapons-
grade plutonium for at least the next 15 years, and Iran declares a longer period of intent.
Iran’s total stockpile of enriched uranium – which today is equivalent to almost 12,000 kilograms of UF6 – will be
capped at just 300 kilograms for the next 15 years – an essential component of expanding our breakout time. Two-
thirds of Iran’s centrifuges will be removed from nuclear facilities along with the infrastructure that supports them. And
once they’re removed, the centrifuges will be – and the infrastructure, by the way – will be locked away and under
around-the-clock monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Uranium enrichment at Natanz will be scaled down significantly. For the next 15 years, no uranium will be enriched
beyond 3.67 percent. To put that in context, this is a level that is appropriate for civilian nuclear power and research,
but well below anything that could be used possibly for a weapon.
For the next 10 years, Iran has agreed to only use its first-generation centrifuges in order to enrich uranium. Iran has
further agreed to disconnect nearly all of its advanced centrifuges, and those that remain installed will be part of a
constrained and closely monitored R&D program – and none will be used to produce enriched uranium.
Iran has also agreed to stop enriching uranium at its Fordow facility for the next 15 years. It will not even use or store
fissile material on the site during that time. Instead, Fordow will be transformed into a nuclear, physics, and
technology research center – it will be used, for example, to produce isotopes for cancer treatment, and it will be
subject to daily inspection and it will have other nations working in unison with the Iranians within that technology
center.
So when this deal is implemented, the two uranium paths Iran has towards fissile material for a weapon will be closed
off.
The same is true for the plutonium path. We have agreed Iran’s heavy-water reactor at Arak will be rebuilt – based on
a final design that the United States and international partners will approve – so that it will only be used for peaceful
purposes. And Iran will not build a new heavy-water reactor or reprocess fuel from its existing reactors for at least 15
years.
But this agreement is not only about what happens to Iran’s declared facilities. The deal we have reached also gives
us the greatest assurance that we have had that Iran will not pursue a weapon covertly.
Not only will inspectors be able to access Iran’s declared facilities daily, but they will also have access to the entire
supply chain that supports Iran’s nuclear program, from start to finish – from uranium mines to centrifuge
manufacturing and operation. So what this means is, in fact, that to be able to have a covert path, Iran would actually
need far more than one covert facility – it would need an entire covert supply chain in order to feed into that site. And
to ensure that that does not happen without our knowledge, under this deal, inspectors will be able to gain access to
any location the IAEA and a majority of the P5+1 nations deem suspicious.
It is no secret that the IAEA also has had longstanding questions about the possible military dimensions of Iran’s
nuclear program. That is one of the primary reasons that we are even here today, and we and our partners have
made clear throughout the negotiations that Iran would need to satisfy the IAEA on this as part of the final deal. With
that in mind, Iran and the IAEA have already entered into an agreement on the process to address all of the IAEA’s
outstanding questions within three months – and doing so is a fundamental requirement for sanctions relief that Iran
seeks. And Director Amano announced earlier this morning that that agreement has been signed.
Now, our quarrel has never been with the Iranian people, and we realize how deeply the nuclear-related sanctions
have affected the lives of Iranians. Thanks to the agreement reached today, that will begin to change. In return for the
dramatic changes that Iran has accepted for its nuclear program, the international community will be lifting the
nuclear-related sanctions on Iran’s economy.
And the relief from sanctions will only start when Tehran has met its key initial nuclear commitments – for example,
when it has removed the core from the Arak reactor; when it has dismantled the centrifuges that it has agreed to
dismantle; when it has shipped out the enriched uranium that it has agreed to ship out. When these and other
commitments are met, the sanctions relief will then begin to be implemented in phases.
The reason for that is very simple: Confidence is never built overnight. It has to be developed over time. And this
morning, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif expressed his hope that this agreement can be a beginning of a change of the
interactions between Iran and the international community.
That is why none of the sanctions that we currently have in place will, in fact, be lifted until Iran implements the
commitments that it has made. And some restrictions, including those related to arms and proliferation, will remain in
place for some years to come. And I want to underscore: If Iran fails in a material way to live up to these
commitments, then the United States, the EU, and even the UN sanctions that initially brought Iran to the table can
and will snap right back into place. We have a specific provision in this agreement called snapback for the return of
those sanctions in the event of noncompliance.
Now, there will be some who will assert that we could have done more – or that if we had just continued to ratchet up
the pressure, Iran would have eventually raised a white flag and abandoned its nuclear program altogether. But the
fact is the international community tried that approach. That was the policy of the United States and others during the
years 2000 and before. And in the meantime, guess what happened? The Iranian program went from 164 centrifuges
to thousands. The Iranian program grew despite the fact that the international community said, “No enrichment at all,
none.” The program grew to the point where Iran accumulated enough fissile material for about 12 – 10 to 12 nuclear
bombs.
I will tell you, sanctioning Iran until it capitulates makes for a powerful talking point and a pretty good political speech,
but it’s not achievable outside a world of fantasy.
The true measure of this agreement is not whether it meets all of the desires of one side at the expense of the other;
the test is whether or not it will leave the world safer and more secure than it would be without it. So let’s review the
facts.
Without this agreement or the Joint Plan of Action on which it builds, Iran’s breakout time to get enough material –
nuclear material for a weapon was already two to three months. That’s where we started. We started with Iran two
months away with enough fissile material for 10 bombs. With this agreement, that breakout time goes to a year or
more, and that will be the case for at least a decade.
Without this agreement, Iran could just double its enrichment capacity tomorrow – literally – and within a few years it
could expand it to as many as 100,000 centrifuges. With this agreement, Iran will be operating about 5,000
centrifuges for a fixed period of time.
Without this agreement, Iran would be able to add rapidly and without any constraint to its stockpile of enriched
uranium, which already at 20 percent was dangerous and higher than any of us were satisfied was acceptable. With
this agreement, the stockpile will be kept at no more than 300 kilograms for 15 years.
Without this agreement, Iran’s Arak reactor could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium each year to fuel two
nuclear weapons. With this agreement, the core of the Arak reactor will be removed and filled with concrete, and Iran
will not produce any weapons-grade plutonium.
Without this agreement, the IAEA would not have definitive access to locations suspected of conducting undeclared
nuclear activities. With this agreement, the IAEA will be able to access any location, declared or undeclared, to follow
up on legitimate concerns about nuclear activities.
There can be no question that this agreement will provide a stronger, more comprehensive, and more lasting means
of limiting Iran’s nuclear program than any realistic – realistic alternative. And those who criticize and those who
spend a lot of time suggesting that something could be better have an obligation to provide an alternative that, in fact,
works. And let me add this: While the nations that comprise the P5+1 obviously don’t always see eye-to-eye on
global issues, we are in full agreement on the quality and importance of this deal. From the very beginning of this
process, we have considered not only our own security concerns, but also the serious and legitimate anxieties of our
friends and our allies in the region – especially Israel and the Gulf States. And that has certainly been the case in
recent days, as we worked to hammer out the final details.
So let me make a couple of points crystal-clear: First, what we are announcing today is an agreement addressing the
threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program – period – just the nuclear program. And anybody who knows the conduct of
international affairs knows that it is better to deal with a country if you have problems with it if they don’t have a
nuclear weapon. As such, a number of U.S. sanctions will remain in place, including those related to terrorism,
human rights, and ballistic missiles. In addition, the United States will continue our efforts to address concerns about
Iran’s actions in the region, including by our providing key support to our partners and our allies and by making sure
we are vigilant in pushing back against destabilizing activities.
And certainly, we continue to call on Iran to immediately release the detained U.S. citizens. These Americans have
remained in our thoughts throughout this negotiation, and we will continue to work for their safe and their swift return.
And we urge Iran to bring our missing Americans home as well.
And we also know there is not a challenge in the entire region that would not become worse if Iran had a nuclear
weapon. That’s why this deal is so important. It’s also why we met at Camp David with the Gulf States and why we
will make clear to them in the days ahead the ways in which we will work together in order to guarantee the security
of the region. The provisions of this agreement help guarantee that the international community can and will address
regional challenges without the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Second, no part of this agreement relies on trust. It is all based on thorough and extensive transparency and
verification measures that are included in very specific terms in the annexes of this agreement. If Iran fails to comply,
we will know it, because we’re going to be there – the international community, through the IAEA and otherwise – and
we will know it quickly, and we will be able to respond accordingly.
And before closing, I would like to make – I would like to say thank you to some folks who really made a difference in
the course of all of this. And I want to begin by thanking my president, President Obama, who had the courage to
launch this process, believe in it, support it, encourage it, when many thought that the objective was impossible, and
who led the way from the start to the finish. The President has been resolute in insisting from the day he came to
office that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and he has been equally – equally strong in asserting that
diplomacy should be given a fair chance to achieve that goal.
I want to thank my Cabinet colleagues – excuse me – for the many, many contributions that they have made –
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, the entire DOD – the department, but I especially want
to thank my partner in this effort who came late to the process but has made an essential contribution to our
achievement of this agreement, and that is Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz, who has put many long days here in
Switzerland – here and in Switzerland – during these negotiations and, frankly, whose background as a nuclear
scientist just proved to be essential in helping us, together with former foreign minister and Vice President Salehi, to
be able to really work through very difficult issues, some of the toughest and technical issues.
I want to thank the members of Congress – my former colleagues – for their role in this achievement, particularly in
designing and passing sanctions legislation that did exactly what the UN resolution set out to do, and that is bring Iran
to the table in order to negotiate. It helped us achieve the goal of these negotiations, and I appreciate their counsel
and I look forward to the next chapter in our conversations. Whatever disagreements might sometimes exist, we all
agree on a goal of a Middle East where our interests are protected and our allies and our friends are safe and secure.
And I want to especially thank my friend and my exceptional colleague, the Under Secretary of State Wendy
Sherman, who has piloted – (applause) – she has led our team, which you can tell is still pretty enthusiastic,
notwithstanding the long stay – and she has really done so with just an amazingly strong will, with a clear sense of
direction, very steady nerves, hardly any sleep – and she’s been doing that for several years, folks, with amazing
periods of time away from home and away from family. She and our absolutely brilliant, tireless team of experts and
diplomats have done an absolutely incredible job, and frankly, they deserve the gratitude of our nation. (Applause.) I
also want to thank those who’ve served on the U.S. negotiating team in the past who were not here for the close but
who were indispensable in helping to shape this negotiation – particularly former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns,
Jake Sullivan, who were absolutely essential in the earliest days.
I also want to thank my counterparts from every other delegation. All of the political directors were absolutely stunning
in this. It’s been a privilege of my public service to be able to work with the teams that I have worked with here and in
the other cities we’ve been. Our counterparts have made absolutely critical contributions to this. This was a team
effort. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius; British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond; Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov; German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier; and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
I also want to thank the high representatives of the EU, there’s several – Javier Solana, Dame Cathy Ashton, and her
successor, Federica Mogherini, who helped shepherd these past weeks in such an effective way. I also want to thank
her deputy to the high representative, Helga Schmid, who, together with Wendy, they just formed an incredible unity,
and they facilitated and guided our talks with enormous dedication and skill.
All of these leaders and the legion of aids who contributed countless hours to assisting us really set a new standard
for international cooperation and hard work. And the fact that we have stood together and maintained our unity
throughout these 18 months lends enormous weight and credibility to the agreement we have forged, but it also offers
everybody a sign of possibilities, a sign of encouragement for those who believe in the power of diplomacy and of
negotiation.
Thank you also to the Government of Austria, which has very generously hosted this last round of talks – perhaps for
a bit longer than it may have expected – (laughter) – and it has also hosted countless rounds before this one, so
they’ve made a very special contribution to this. And I’ll tell you, all the police and the folks in the hotels and
everybody in Austria, Vielen dank. We thank you for a really remarkable welcome. (Applause.)
I want to thank the other nations that have hosted these talks – this has been sort of a traveling circus – in particular
Switzerland, Oman, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, and my home country, the United States.
And I am particularly grateful – we are particularly grateful, all of us, to the sultan of Oman, for his very personal
engagement and support for the possibility of an agreement. He and his government were there to help every step of
the way.
And I finally want to express my deep respect for the serious and constructive approach that Iran’s representatives
brought to our deliberations. The president of Iran, President Rouhani, had to make a difficult decision. We all know
the tensions that exist. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a tough, capable negotiator, and patriot, a man who fought every
inch of the way for the things he believed, and sometimes these were heated and passionate exchanges. But he and
his team, while tough, always professional, always dedicated to finding solutions to difficult problems. And we were,
both of us, able to approach these negotiations with mutual respect, even when there were times of a heated
discussion, I think he would agree with me at the end of every meeting we left with a smile and with a conviction that
we were going to come back and continue the process. We never lost sight of the goal that an agreement could bring
and the best long-term interests of all concerned.
Now, we are under no illusions that the hard work is over. No one is standing here today to say that the path ahead is
easy or automatic. We move now to a new phase – a phase that is equally critical and may prove to be just as difficult
– and that is implementation. The 109 pages that we have agreed upon outline commitments made on both sides. In
the end, however, this agreement will live or die by whether the leaders who have to implement it on both sides honor
and implement the commitments that have been made.
There is reason to be optimistic. In January of last year, we took the first step by adopting the Joint Plan of Action.
Man, were we told by skeptics that we were making a mistake of a lifetime – that Iran would never comply, that this
was a terrible agreement. But you know what? They were dead wrong. All sides met their obligations. The diplomatic
process went forward. And we are already nearing almost two years of Iran’s compliance, full compliance, with the
agreement.
The entire world has a stake in ensuring that the same thing happens now. Not only will this deal, fully implemented,
make the world safer than it is today, but it may also eventually unlock opportunities to begin addressing regional
challenges that cannot be resolved without this kind of an agreement being in place in the first place. The past 18
months have been yet another example of diplomacy’s consummate power to forge a peaceful way forward, no
matter how impossible it may seem.
Obviously, every country that has been at the table over the past 18 months has had its own domestic perspective to
consider. The United States is no exception. Back home, the future of Iran’s nuclear program has long been the focus
of a lot of debate, and I have absolutely no doubt that debate is going to become even more intense in the coming
days. I’ll tell you what, we welcome the opportunity to engage. These are vitally important issues, and they deserve
rigorous but fact-based discussion. I’ve heard more talk in the last days about concessions being made and people
racing. We have not made concessions. Lausanne is more than intact. And the facts are what should define this
agreement.
From the start, President Obama and I have pledged that we would not settle for anything less than a good deal –
good for Americans and good for our partners, our friends, our allies, good for the future of the Middle East, and good
for the peace of mind of the world. That is what we pursued and that is what we insisted on through long months of
hard negotiations, and that is precisely what we believe we have achieved today.
I will just share with you very personally, years ago when I left college, I went to war. And I learned in war the price
that is paid when diplomacy fails. And I made a decision that if I ever was lucky enough to be in a position to make a
difference, I would try to do so. I believe this agreement actually represents an effort by the United States of America
and all of its member – its colleagues in the P5+1 to come together with Iran to avert an inevitability of conflict that
would come were we not able to reach agreement. I think that’s what diplomacy was put in place to achieve, and I
know that war is the failure of diplomacy and the failure of leaders to make alternative decisions.
So we have a chance here and I hope that in the days ahead that people will look at this agreement hard for the facts
that define it and that we will be able to fully implement it and move forward.
WASHINGTON POST OP-ED
John Kerry and Ernest Moniz: The case for the nuclear deal with Iran
By John F. Kerry and Ernest Moniz July 22 at 9:20 AM
John F. Kerry is U.S. secretary of state. Ernest Moniz is U.S. energy secretary.
When President Obama took office, he faced an Iran that had mastered the nuclear fuel cycle,
had constructed a covert uranium enrichment facility inside a mountain, was on its way to
installing nearly 20,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, was developing advanced
centrifuges and was building a heavy-water reactor that could produce weapons-grade
plutonium. If Iran wanted to develop a nuclear weapon, it was already well down that road and
the international community had little insight into its program. Against this backdrop the
president vowed never to let Iran obtain a nuclear weapon.
The deal reached in Vienna this month is not only the best way to prevent Iran from having a
nuclear weapon, it is the only durable and viable option for achieving this goal. This
comprehensive diplomatic resolution has the unified support of the world’s leading powers. It
extends the time Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon, provides strong verification
measures that give us ample time to respond if Iran chooses that path, and takes none of our
options off the table.
Specifically, the deal blocks each of Iran’s possible pathways to producing fissile material for a
nuclear weapon: the highly enriched uranium and the plutonium production pathways, as well as
the covert pathway. This deal is based on verification, not trust. Before obtaining significant
relief from economic sanctions, Iran must roll back its enrichment, its research-and-development
and its stockpile of enriched uranium. To preclude cheating, international inspectors will have
unprecedented access to Iran’s declared nuclear facilities, any other sites of concern and its entire
nuclear supply chain, from uranium production to centrifuge manufacturing and operation.
If Iran fails to meet its responsibilities, sanctions will snap back into place, and no country can
stop that from happening. If Iran tries to break out of the deal altogether, the world will have a
longer time period — a year compared with two months — to respond before it could produce a
bomb. We also will have the moral authority that comes from exhausting all diplomatic options.
Is this a good deal for the United States and for global security? Consider the facts.
Without this deal, Iran could double its capacity to enrich uranium in a short time. With it, it
must reduce that capacity immediately and sharply.
Without this deal, Iran could continue to rapidly develop advanced centrifuges. With it, its
program will be significantly constrained.
Without this deal, Iran could expand its existing stockpile of enriched uranium. With it, that
stockpile will be reduced by 98 percent, and it will be capped at that level for 15 years. Iran will
also be required to get rid of its 20 percent enriched uranium, which is most of the way to bomb
material.
Without this deal, Iran could produce enough weapons-grade plutonium each year for one to two
nuclear weapons. With it, Iran will not produce any weapons-grade plutonium.
Without this deal, Iran could take the steps necessary to produce a nuclear weapon. With it, Iran
is prohibited from pursuing any of these steps.
If the international community suspects that Iran is cheating, the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) can request access to any suspicious location. Much has been made about a
possible 24-day delay before inspectors could gain access to suspected undeclared nuclear sites.
To be clear, the IAEA can request access to any suspicious location with 24 hours’ notice under
the Additional Protocol of the Nonproliferation Treaty, which Iran will implement under this
deal. This accord does not change that baseline. In fact, the deal enhances it by creating a new
mechanism to ensure that the IAEA gets the required access and sets a firm time limit to resolve
access issues within 24 days. This mechanism provides an important tool for ensuring that Iran
could not delay indefinitely.
Most important, environmental sampling can detect microscopic traces of nuclear activities even
after attempts to remove evidence. Iran’s own history provides a good example. In February
2003, the IAEA requested access to a suspicious facility in Tehran, and negotiations dragged on
as Iran tried to remove evidence. But even after six months, tests revealed nuclear activity
despite Iran’s attempt tocover it up.
The plan approved in Vienna does not expire — it is indefinite. Some provisions will be in place
for 10 years, others for 15, and still others for 20 or 25. But the transparency requirements and
Iran’s most fundamental obligation — to preserve the peaceful nature of its nuclear program —
are permanent.
Meanwhile, economic sanctions will remain intact until Tehran has met its key commitments,
which include removing the core of its reactor at Arak, disconnecting and locking away some
13,000 centrifuges and shipping most of its enriched uranium out of the country.
For the United States to back away from this deal would be a historic mistake. We would be
isolated from our partners, face an unraveling sanctions regime and give Iran the unconstrained
ability to push ahead with its nuclear program.
We recognize that Iran remains a threat to stability in the Middle East. That danger is precisely
why this deal is so necessary and why we fought so hard for the multilateral arms embargo to
remain in place for five years and the embargo on ballistic missiles for eight. U.S. sanctions
related to terrorism, human rights and missiles will also continue.
A nuclear-armed Iran is a threat to our allies in the Middle East, as well as to the United States
and the international community. By taking this threat off the table, this deal makes it far less
complicated to address the many other problems that we have with Iran’s regional actions.
President Obama has said clearly that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. Neither sanctions nor
military action can guarantee that outcome. The solution is the comprehensive diplomatic deal
reached in Vienna.
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Secretary Kerry’s Remarks
SFRC Hearing on the Iran Nuclear Deal
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Chairman Corker, Ranking Member Cardin, Members of the Committee, friends
and former Colleagues – I appreciate the chance to discuss with you the
comprehensive plan that we and our P5+1 partners have developed with Iran
regarding the future of its nuclear program.
I am joined by the two Cabinet Secretaries whose help was invaluable in reaching
this deal– Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz.
I want to thank all of you for the role that Congress has played in getting us to this
point and particularly for this committee’s hard work in enacting sanctions that
achieved their purpose -- by bringing about serious, productive negotiations with
Iran.
From the day those talks began, we were crystal clear that we would not accept
anything less than a good deal – a deal that shuts off all of Iran’s pathways towards
fissile material for a nuclear weapon and resolves the international community’s
concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
After 18 months of intense talks, the facts are also crystal clear: the plan
announced last week in Vienna is the good deal we have sought.
Under its terms, Iran must get rid of 98 percent of its stockpile of enriched
uranium, two-thirds of its installed centrifuges, and the existing core of its heavy-
water reactor.
Iran will be barred from producing or acquiring both highly enriched uranium and
weapons-grade plutonium for at least the next 15 years.
Iran will be subject to the most comprehensive and intrusive verification and
transparency measures ever negotiated – so that if Iran cheats, we will know it
quickly and be able to respond accordingly. And many of these measures will be
in place not just for 10 or 15 or 20 years, but for the lifetime of Iran’s nuclear
program, which will enable us to verifiably ensure it remains exclusively peaceful.
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Remember that, two years ago, when our negotiations began, we faced an Iran that
was enriching uranium up to 20 percent at a facility built in secret and buried in a
mountain, was rapidly stockpiling enriched uranium, had installed nearly 20,000
nuclear centrifuges, and was building a heavy water reactor that could produce
weapons-grade plutonium at a rate of one to two bombs per year. Experts tabbed
Iran’s so-called breakout time – the interval required for it to have enough fissile
material for a bomb – at two to three months.
This is the reality we would return to if this deal is rejected – except that the
diplomatic support we have been steadily accumulating in recent years would
disappear overnight.
Let me underscore – the alternative to the deal we’ve reached isn’t a better deal –
some sort of unicorn arrangement involving Iran’s complete capitulation. That’s a
fantasy – plain and simple.
The choice we face is between a deal that will ensure Iran’s nuclear program is
limited, rigorously scrutinized, and wholly peaceful – or no deal at all.
If we walk away from what was agreed in Vienna, we will be walking away from
every one of the restrictions we have negotiated, and giving Iran the green light to
double the pace of its uranium enrichment, proceed full speed ahead with a heavy
water reactor, install new and more efficient centrifuges, and do it all without the
unprecedented inspection and transparency measures we’ve secured.
If we walk away, our partners will not walk away with us. Instead, they’ll walk
away from the tough multilateral sanctions regime they helped us to put in place.
We will be left to go it alone and whatever limited economic pressure from
sanctions would remain would certainly not compel Tehran to negotiate or to make
any deeper concessions. They would instead push the program ahead potentially
forcing military conflict. And we will have squandered the best chance we have to
solve this problem through peaceful means.
Make no mistake: we will never accept a nuclear-armed Iran. But the fact is that
Iran has extensive experience with nuclear fuel cycle technology. We can’t bomb
that knowledge away. Nor can we sanction that knowledge away. Remember that
sanctions did not stop Iran’s nuclear program from growing steadily, to the point it
had accumulated enough low enriched uranium that, if further enriched, could be
used to produce about 10 nuclear bombs.
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The truth is that the Vienna plan will provide a stronger, more comprehensive, and
more lasting means of limiting Iran’s nuclear program than any realistic
alternative.
And to those who are thinking about opposing the deal because of what might
happen in year 15 or 16 – remember that, if we walk away, year 15 starts tomorrow
– and without any of the long-term verification or transparency safeguards that we
have put in place to ensure that we prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Over the past week, I’ve spoken at length about what, exactly, this deal is. But I
also want to make clear what this deal was never expected or intended to be.
This plan was designed to address the nuclear issue alone, not to reform Iran’s
regime, or end its support for terrorism, or its contributions to sectarian violence in
the Middle East. Those are all issues about which we remain deeply concerned
and will continue take real steps, which is why we are upholding our
unprecedented levels of security cooperation with Israel; why we are working so
closely with the Gulf States and continue to maintain a robust military presence in
the region and countering Iran’s destabilizing activities; why we will keep striving
to prevent terrorist groups – including Hamas and Hezbollah – from acquiring
weapons; and why U.S. sanctions related to human rights, terrorism, and ballistic
missiles will remain in place. It is also why we will continue to press Iran for
information about the missing and for the immediate release of Americans who
have been unjustly detained.
The fact is, there is not a challenge in the entire region that wouldn’t become much
worse if Iran had a nuclear weapon – and that’s exactly why this deal is so
important. Its provisions will help us to address the full range of regional
challenges without the looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.
That outcome cannot be guaranteed either by sanctions alone or – on an enduring
basis – by military action. The only viable option is a comprehensive diplomatic
resolution of the type reached in Vienna. That deal will make our country and our
allies safer. It will ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains under intense
scrutiny. And it will ensure that the world community is united in ensuring that
Iran’s nuclear activities are and remain wholly peaceful. It is a good deal for the
world – a good deal for America – and it richly deserves your support. Thank you.
###
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Written Testimony of Jacob J. Lew, Secretary of the Treasury
United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
July 23, 2015
Chairman Corker, Ranking Member Cardin, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the P5+1 and Iran, a historic deal that
will ensure that Iran’s nuclear program will be exclusively peaceful. A foreign policy decision
of such significance deserves careful, detailed, and public analysis and hearings like this one are
central to that review. I am confident that a full and fair debate on the merits will make it clear
that this deal will strengthen our national security and that of our allies.
Secretary Kerry and Secretary Moniz have detailed how the deal effectively cuts off all of Iran’s
pathways to a nuclear weapon and ensures the inspections and transparency necessary to verify
that Iran is complying. I will focus on describing how the international sanctions coalition that
the United States and our partners built over a nearly a decade — combined with hard-nosed
diplomacy and a credible military deterrent — allowed us to secure far-reaching and
unprecedented nuclear concessions from Iran. I will also discuss the nature of the sanctions
relief contained in this deal, and how the JCPOA is structured to maintain pressure on Iran to
fulfill its commitments. Finally, I want to describe the powerful sanctions that will remain in
place to counter a range of malign Iranian activity outside of the nuclear sphere – most notably
its active support for terrorism, its ballistic missiles program, destabilizing regional activities,
and human rights abuses. The Administration will continue to wield these measures in a
strategic and aggressive manner and will work with our allies in the region to coordinate and
intensify the impact of these tools.
The Impact of Sanctions on Iran’s Economy
Iran would not have come to the negotiating table were it not for the powerful array of U.S. and
international sanctions. These sanctions made tangible for Iran’s leaders the costs of flouting
international law, cutting them off from world markets and crippling their economy. The U.S.
government — Congress and the Executive Branch — stood at the forefront of this effort across
two administrations, successfully pushing for four tough UN Security Council resolutions and
deploying a web of new and far-reaching U.S. sanctions that ultimately persuaded the Iranian
leadership, after years of intransigence, to come to the table prepared to roll back its nuclear
program.
To see the impact of these sanctions, consider that Iran’s economy today is around 20 percent
smaller than it would have been had Iran remained on its pre-2012 growth trajectory. This
means that even if Iran returns to that pre-2012 growth rate, it would take until 2020 for Iran’s
GDP to reach the level it would have been last year absent sanctions.
Our sanctions have cost Iran more than $160 billion since 2012 in oil revenue alone. Iran’s oil
exports were cut by 60 percent, and have been held at those reduced levels for the past two years.
And Iran’s designated banks, as well as its Central Bank, were cut off from the world. Since
2012, Iran’s currency, the rial, has declined by more than 50 percent. Its inflation rate reached as
high as 40 percent, and remains one of the highest in the world.
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We have maintained this pressure throughout the last eighteen months of negotiations. During
the negotiation period alone, our oil sanctions deprived Iran of $70 billion in oil revenue. And
Iran’s total trade with the rest of the world remained virtually flat.
The international consensus and cooperation to achieve this sanctions pressure was vital. While
views on Iran’s sponsorship of groups like Hizballah and its interventions in places like Yemen
and Syria differ markedly around the world, the world’s major powers have been — and remain
— united that Iran cannot be allowed to pursue a nuclear weapons capability. That unity of
purpose produced the UN Security Council resolutions and national-level sanctions in Japan,
Australia, Switzerland, Canada, and many other jurisdictions. In all of these cases, the sanctions
aimed to deliver a change in Iran’s nuclear behavior, while holding out the prospect of relief if
Iran addressed the world’s concerns about its nuclear program.
Sanctions Relief under the JCPOA
As you have heard from Secretaries Kerry and Moniz, the JCPOA closes off all of Iran’s
pathways to nuclear weapons capability and, critically, gives us the access to ensure compliance
and the leverage to re-impose sanctions if Iran breaches the deal. Should Iran fully comply with
the terms of the JCPOA, and should the IAEA verify this compliance, phased sanctions relief
will come into effect.
To be clear, about 90 days from now when the JCPOA goes into effect, there will be no
immediate changes to UN, EU or U.S. sanctions. Iran will not receive any new relief until it
fulfills all of the key nuclear-related commitments specified in the deal, thereby pushing back its
breakout time to at least one year. Until Iran does so, we will simply extend the limited JPOA
relief that has been in place for the last year and a half.
Should Iran fulfill all of the necessary conditions, we will have reached what it is known as
“Implementation Day,” and phased relief will begin. At that time, the United States will suspend
nuclear-related secondary sanctions. These are the sanctions that primarily target third-country
parties conducting business with Iran — including in the oil, banking, and shipping sectors.
Relief from these restrictions will be significant, to be sure. But a number of key sanctions will
remain in place. Our primary trade embargo will continue to prohibit U.S. persons from
investing in Iran, importing or exporting most goods and services, or otherwise dealing with
most Iranian persons and companies. For example, Iranian banks will not be able to clear U.S.
dollars through New York, hold correspondent account relationships with U.S. financial
institutions, or enter into financing arrangements with U.S. banks. Iran, in other words, will
continue to be denied access to the world’s largest financial and commercial market.
The JCPOA makes only minor allowances to this broad prohibition. These include allowing for
the import of foodstuffs and carpets from Iran; the export on a case-by-case basis of commercial
passenger aircraft and parts to Iran — which has one of the world’s worst aviation safety records
— for civilian uses only; and the licensing of U.S.-owned or controlled foreign entities to engage
in activities with Iran consistent with the JCPOA and U.S. laws.
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The United States will also maintain powerful sanctions targeting Iran’s support for terrorist
groups such as Hizballah and its sponsors in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Quds
Force; its destabilizing support to the Houthis in Yemen; its backing of Assad’s brutal regime; its
missile program; and its human rights abuses at home. Just this week, Treasury sanctioned
several Hizballah leaders, building on designations last month that targeted the group’s front
companies and facilitators. We will not be providing any sanctions relief to any of these lines of
activity and will not be delisting from sanctions the IRGC, the Quds Force, or any of their
subsidiaries or senior officials.
I also want to emphasize that secondary sanctions imposed by Congress will continue to attach to
these designations, providing additional deterrence internationally. For example, a foreign bank
that conducts or facilitates a significant financial transaction with Iran’s Mahan Air or Bank
Saderat will risk losing its access to the U.S. financial system. These sanctions will continue to
be in place and enforced; they are not covered by the JCPOA.
Snapback
While our focus is on successfully implementing this deal, we must guard against the possibility
that Iran does not uphold its side of the deal. That is why, should Iran violate its commitments
once we have suspended sanctions, we have the mechanisms ready to snap them back into place.
For U.S. sanctions, this can be done in a matter of days. Multilateral sanctions at the UN also
can be re-imposed quickly, through a mechanism that does not allow any one country or any
group of countries to prevent the reinstitution of the current UN Security Council sanctions if
Iran violates the deal. So, even as Iran attempts to reintegrate into the global economy, it will
remain subject to sanctions leverage.
Countering Iran’s Malign Activities
As noted above, Iran’s malign activities continue to present a real danger to U.S. interests and
our allies in the region, beyond the nuclear file. I have heard some argue that, until Iran ceases
these activities, sanctions relief is premature, and that funds that Iran recovers could be diverted
to these malign activities. I understand the concern well — no one wants to see the world’s
foremost sponsor of terrorism receive any respite from sanctions. But it is Iran’s relationships
with terrorist groups that make it so essential for us to deprive it of any possibility of obtaining a
nuclear weapon. The combination of those two threats would raise the specter of what national
security experts have termed the ultimate nightmare. If we cannot solve both concerns at once,
we need to address them in turn. The JCPOA will address the danger of Iran’s nuclear program
— lowering the overall threat posture and freeing us and our allies to check Iran’s regional
activities more aggressively, while keeping our sanctions on support for terrorist activity in
place. By contrast, walking away from this deal and seeking to extend sanctions would leave the
world’s leading sponsor of terrorism with a short and decreasing nuclear breakout time.
None of this is to say that we view the sanctions relief Iran will receive if it complies with the
JCPOA with indifference. As the agency with primary responsibility for sanctions against Iran
over the last three decades, we are keenly aware of its nefarious activities in the region and have
invested years in devising and implementing sanctions to frustrate its objectives.
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That said, in gauging the impact of lifting these restrictions, we should be measured and realistic.
These funds represent the bulk of Iran’s foreign reserves — they are the country’s long-term
savings, not its annual budgetary allowance, and as a matter of financial management, Iran
cannot simply spend them. Of the portion that Iran spends, we assess that Iran will use the vast
majority to attempt to redress its stark economic needs. President Rouhani was elected on a
platform of economic revitalization and faces a political imperative to meet those unfulfilled
promises. Iran’s needs are vast — President Rouhani faces well over half a trillion dollars in
pressing investment requirements and government obligations. And Iran’s economy continues to
suffer from immense challenges — including perennial budget deficits, rampant corruption, and
one of the worst business environments in the world. Put simply, Iran is in a massive hole from
which it will take years to climb out.
In any event, we will aggressively target any attempts by Iran to use funds gained from sanctions
relief to support militant proxies, including by continuing to enhance our cooperation with Israel
and our partners in the Gulf.
Conclusion
The JCPOA is a strong deal — with phased relief in exchange for Iranian compliance and a
powerful snap-back built in. Backing away from this deal, on the notion that it would be feasible
and preferable to escalate the economic pressure and somehow obtain a capitulation — whether
on the nuclear, regional, terrorism, or human rights fronts — would be a mistake. Even if one
believed that continuing sanctions pressure was a better course than resolving the threat of Iran’s
nuclear program, that choice is not available.
The UN Security Council and our partners around the world agreed to impose costly sanctions
against Iran for one reason — to put a stop to its illicit nuclear program. If we changed our terms
now and insisted that these countries continue to impose those sanctions on Iran, despite the
availability of a diplomatic solution to its nuclear program, they would balk. And we would be
left with neither a nuclear deal nor effective sanctions. It is unrealistic to think that additional
sanctions pressure would force Iran to totally capitulate — and impractical to believe that we
could marshal a global coalition of partners to impose such pressure, after turning down a deal
that our partners believe is a good one.
The terms of this deal achieve the purpose they were meant to achieve: blocking Iran’s paths to
a nuclear bomb. That is an overriding national security priority, and its achievement should not
be put at risk — not when the prospect of an unconstrained Iranian nuclear program presents
such a threat to America and the world.
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Secretary Ernest Moniz
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee
Washington, DC
July 23, 2015
Chairman Corker, Ranking Member Cardin and Members of the Committee, thank
you for the opportunity to discuss the historic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA) reached between the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the
United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States) and Iran.
The JCPOA prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, provides strong
verification measures that give us ample time to respond if Iran chose to violate its
terms, and takes none of our options off the table
America’s leading nuclear experts at the Department of Energy were involved
throughout these negotiations. The list of labs and sites that provided support is
long, including Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Savannah
River National Laboratory, the Y-12 National Security Complex, and the Kansas
City Plant.
These nuclear experts were essential to evaluating and developing technical
proposals in support of the U.S. delegation. As a result of their work, I am
confident that the technical underpinnings of this deal are solid and the Department
of Energy stands ready to assist in its implementation.
This deal clearly meets the President’s objectives: verification of an Iranian nuclear
program that is exclusively peaceful and sufficient lead time to respond if it proves
otherwise. The JCPOA will extend for at least ten years the time it would take for
Iran to produce enough fissile material for a first nuclear explosive device to at
least one year from the current breakout time of just two to three months.
Let me take a moment to walk through how the JCPOA blocks each of Iran’s
pathways to the fissile material for a nuclear weapon: the high enriched uranium
pathways through the Natanz and Fordow enrichment facilities, the plutonium
pathway at the Arak reactor, and the covert pathway.
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Iran will reduce its stockpile of up-to-5 percent enriched uranium hexafluoride,
which is equivalent now to almost 12,000 kg, by nearly 98 percent to only 300
kilograms of low (3.67 percent) enriched uranium hexafluoride, and will not
exceed this level for fifteen years. In particular, Iran will be required to get rid of
its 20 percent enriched uranium that is not fabricated into fuel for the Tehran
Research Reactor. This is important because excess 20 percent enriched uranium
could be converted into feed for centrifuges, which would be about 90 percent of
the way to bomb material.
Iran’s installed centrifuges will be reduced by two thirds, leaving it with just over
5,000 operating centrifuges at Natanz – its only enrichment facility – under
continuous IAEA monitoring. For the next 10 years, only the oldest and least
capable centrifuges, the IR-1, will be allowed to operate.
Iran has an established R&D program for a number of advanced centrifuges (IR-2,
IR-5, IR-6, IR-8). This pace of the program will be slowed substantially and will
be carried out only at Natanz for 15 years, under close International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring. Iran will not pursue other approaches to
uranium enrichment.
The underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow will be converted to a
nuclear, physics, and technology center where specific projects such as stable
isotope production are undertaken. There will be no uranium enrichment, no
uranium enrichment research and development, and no nuclear material at the site
at all for 15 years. In cooperation with Russia, Iran will pursue a limited program
for production of stable isotopes, such as those used for medical applications. And
the IAEA will have a right to daily access at Fordow as well.
All of these reasons taken together establish the one year breakout timeline for
accumulating high enriched uranium.
In addition, Iran will have no source of weapons-grade plutonium. The Arak
reactor, which according to its original design could have been a source of
plutonium for a nuclear weapon, will be transformed to produce far less plutonium
overall and no weapons-grade plutonium when operated normally. All spent fuel
from the reactor that could be reprocessed to recover plutonium will be sent out of
the country, and all of this will be under a rigorous IAEA inspection regime.
This deal goes beyond the parameters established in Lausanne in a very important
area. Under this deal, Iran will not engage in several activities that could
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contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device, including multiple
point explosive systems. These commitments are indefinite. In addition, Iran will
not pursue plutonium or uranium (or its alloys) metallurgy for fifteen years.
Because Iran will not engage in activities needed to use weapons grade material for
an explosive device, an additional period can be added to the breakout timeline.
To be clear, this deal is not built on trust. It is built on hard-nosed requirements
that will limit Iran’s activities and ensure inspections, transparency, and
verification. To preclude cheating, international inspectors will be given
unprecedented access to all of Iran’s declared nuclear facilities and any other sites
of concern, as well as the entire nuclear supply chain, from uranium supply to
centrifuge manufacturing and operation. And this access to the uranium supply
chain comes with a 25 year commitment.
The IAEA will be permitted to use advanced technologies, such as enrichment
monitoring devices and electronic seals. DOE national laboratories have
developed many such technologies.
If the international community suspects that Iran is trying to cheat, the IAEA can
request access to any suspicious location. Much has been made about a 24 day
process for ensuring that IAEA inspectors can get access to undeclared nuclear
sites. In fact, the IAEA can request access to any suspicious location with 24
hours’ notice under the Additional Protocol, which Iran will implement under this
deal. This deal does not change that baseline. The JCPOA goes beyond that
baseline, recognizing that disputes could arise regarding IAEA access to sensitive
facilities, and provides a crucial new tool for resolving such disputes within a short
period of time so that the IAEA gets the access it needs in a timely fashion —
within 24 days. Most important, environmental sampling can detect microscopic
traces of nuclear materials even after attempts are made to remove the nuclear
material.
In fact, Iran’s history provides a good example. In February 2003, the IAEA
requested access to a suspicious facility in Tehran suspected of undeclared nuclear
activities. Negotiations over access to the site dragged on for six months, but even
after that long delay, environmental samples taken by the IAEA revealed nuclear
activity even though Iran had made a substantial effort to remove and cover up the
evidence. This deal dramatically shortens the period over which Iran could drag
out an access dispute.
4
The JCPOA will be implemented in phases — with some provisions in place for 10
years, others for 15 and others for 20 or 25 years. Even after 25 years, key
transparency measures, such as the legal obligations Iran will assume under the
Additional Protocol, remain in place indefinitely as part of its adherence to the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty regime.
In closing, I want to acknowledge the tireless work of the negotiating team, led by
Secretary Kerry. The U.S. multi-agency delegation worked together collegially
and seamlessly, and the E3/EU+3 displayed remarkable cooperation and cohesion
throughout this complex endeavor. The continued cooperation among leading
nations, in particular the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the
EU, is crucial to ensuring that Iran complies with the JCPOA so as to avoid the re-
imposition of a major international sanctions regime.
This deal is based on science and analysis. Because of its deep grounding in
exhaustive technical analysis, carried out largely by highly capable DOE scientists
and engineers, I am confident that this is a good deal for America, for our allies,
and for our global security.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I look forward to answering your
questions.
DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN, IS INTERVIEWED ON NBC'S
"MEET THE PRESS"
JULY 19, 2015
SPEAKERS: DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS HOST
[*] CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS HOST: On Friday I was joined by the head of one of those
powers, a key advocate of the agreement, British Prime Minister David Cameron. I started by
asking him, why he decided to sign off on this deal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER OF GREAT BRITAIN: Because I think it's so much
better than the alternative. I think that if there wasn't a deal, I think we would face Iran with a
nuclear weapon and that would have given a terrible choice to the West by enabling that,
allowing that to happen or a very difficult decision to take military action.
So this is the better outcome. It keeps Iran away from a nuclear weapon. It's a successful
negotiation for the Allies and I think we should be proud of a good deal done.
Now, of course, there will be those that complain about details of the deal but fundamentally,
this is the toughest set of proposals put in place, verification put in place, inspection put in place
than I think we've seen in any of these sorts of negotiations.
I think it is a good deal. It was right to get on with it. And the sanctions pressure worked. And I
think that's all to the credit to the U.S. administration, to Barack Obama but also the action taken
in Europe, too.
TODD: Well, a lot of the criticism that's coming here in the United States and from some of key
Middle East allies of both Great Britain and the United States -- I'm talking Israel and Saudi
Arabia in particular -- is that this deal did not demand any other behavior changes in Iran
outside of their nuclear weapons program.
It didn't demand changes in what they're doing in Syria, what they're doing in Yemen, essentially
the influence that -- their undue influence that they're trying to exert in the Middle East. Why not
include all that?
CAMERON: Well, this deal was about the nuclear issue. And I think the right way to conclude
the deal was to make it about the nuclear issue.
But you know, we shouldn't be naive or starry-eyed in any way about the regime that we're
dealing with. And I'm certainly not. I spoke to President Rouhani yesterday and said that we
want to see a change in the approach that Iran takes to issues like Syria and Yemen and to
terrorism in the region. And we want a change in behavior that should follow from that change.
We're not starry-eyed at all, and I'd reassure our Gulf allies about that but actually taking the
nuclear weapon issue off the table -- that is a success for America and Britain and our allies and
we should be clear about that.
TODD: Isn't the -- there was one expert here named Richard Haas said his biggest concern is if
Iran does comply with the deal for this reason, he believes if Iran complies with the deal then in
15 years they can have a nuclear weapon. What do you say to that? CAMERON: Well, I don't
believe that's right. Actually, this deal says that it's never acceptable for Iran to have a nuclear
weapon. Obviously, the time frame for which the safeguards are in place and the inspection is in
place is for a particular period of time but the deal actually says it's not acceptable for Iran to
have a nuclear weapon.
But again, what we've done is make sure the timeline for them possibly getting a nuclear
weapon has gotten longer not shorter.
TODD: Prime Minister Netanyahu and many people in Israel do not believe this makes them
safer. Everybody in the United States on the Obama administration has argued it does. I heard
you argue that it does, too. Why is he wrong and you guys are right?
CAMERON: Well, I quite understand the concerns of people living in Israel. You would if you
had to deal with the terrorism of Hamas and Hezbollah, if you had the threats to your country
and you know what a threat Iran has been to your country. So I fully understand their concerns.
But I would say to my friends in Israel, including the Israeli Prime Minister, look, the threat of a
nuclear-armed Iran -- that is now off the table. And I think that's a success.
TODD: David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Thanks for coming on MEET THE
PRESS, sir.
CAMERON: Thank you.
