“Diplomacy can bring about real and meaningful change — change that makes our country, and the world, safer and more secure,” said President Obama on July 14 about the historic nuclear deal reached between the P5+1, the EU and Iran.
“From the start, President Obama and I have pledged that we would not settle for anything less than a good deal,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna. “It is a step away from the specter of conflict, and towards the possibility of peace,” he said, adding that the agreement “has no sunset. It doesn’t terminate.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China), coordinated by the European Union, is a verifiable and diplomatic resolution that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“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,” the president said.
Obama said April 2 that Iran’s nuclear program represented “one of the gravest threats to the security of our nation, our allies, and the world.”
The deal, announced by the EU in Vienna July 14, prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon by:
- Increasing the time it would take Iran to acquire enough material for one bomb from two to three months to at least one year.
- Reducing Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium.
- Reducing the number of Iran’s installed centrifuges by two-thirds.
- Preventing Iran from producing weapon- grade plutonium.
- Tracking Iran’s nuclear activities with robust transparency and inspections.
The agreement comes after months of talks between Iran and P5+1 representatives, and tough global economic sanctions that helped bring Iran to the negotiating table.
Obama said he wanted a peaceful resolution to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He also said economic sanctions that will be lifted as part of the agreement can be reimposed if Iran violates the deal. But the deal offers Iran the opportunity to move in a new direction, he said.
“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,” the president said.
