Iran and US differ on n-deal 'framework agreement'

Tehran, April 7: Iran has some different interpretations about the details of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) outlined by the US last Thursday on Tehran’s nuclear programme, Xinhua reported citing Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency. Quoting a summary of the JCPOA released earlier by the Iranian foreign ministry, Iran media reported sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme “will be lifted immediately when a fil deal is implemented”.

According to the detailed JCPOA released by the US Department of State, however, the US and EU nuclear-related sanctions “will be suspended only after Intertiol Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verification of Iran’s performance of its obligations. And these sanctions will “sp back into place if at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitment.”

Iran and the US also seem to have different ideas about the ture of “solutions” reached in Lausanne.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said repeatedly that what was reached in Lausanne was not legally binding and Iran has no obligation at the moment. But in the text of the US JCPOA, expressions such as “Iran has agreed that”, “Iran will be required to” and “Iran will not” are used very frequently, suggesting that Iran has already made specific commitments.

The Iranian summary of JCPOA also did not mention some terms released in the US version, such as “Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years” and “Iran will only enrich uranium at the tanz facility, with only 5,060 IR-1 first-generation centrifuges for 10 years”.

However, Zarif and head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi told the Majlis on Tuesday that the country would keep its latest centrifuges running even if a fil deal was reached and implemented. They say Iran will inject UF6 gas into the latest generation of its centrifuges as soon as a fil nuclear deal goes into effect, according to Fars news agency.

Earlier, Zarif said Iran would not allow installation of online cameras in its nuclear centres.

Zarif told the parliament that Tehran was not going to permit online cameras for inspection purposes.

During the session, Salehi compared Iran’s nuclear capabilities to countries like Japan, Brazil and Argenti and said Iran owed its nuclear power totally to local scientists.

Salehi also said Western countries consented to enter into negotiations with Iran because they had no other choice.

Zarif said Iran was not going to allow online cameras in its nuclear facilities because of its past bitter experience of assassition of a nuclear scientist.

Representatives from Iran and the P5+1 group of major world powers — the US, Britain, France, Russia, Chi plus Germany — on Thursday concluded the nine-day Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, and reached common solutions to outstanding issues in a run for a comprehensive deal by June 30.

According to the US interpretation of the JCPOA, Iran has agreed to implement the Additiol Protocol to NPT, providing the IAEA much greater access and information regarding Iran’s nuclear programme, including both declared and undeclared facilities.

Under the solutions, Iran will have to cut its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 98 percent over a period of 15 years, while its unfinished Arak heavy water reactor will not produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Tehran will also reduce its number of centrifuges to 6,104 from around 19,000. In return, Iran will receive sanctions relief, if it verifiably abides by its commitments. (IANS)