From the Rose Garden, President Obama announced the historically tough deal that the United States and the international community has negotiated to halt Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
The President said:
Today, after many months of tough, principled diplomacy, we have achieved the framework for that deal, and it is a good deal. A deal that meets our core objectives. This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran will face strict limitations on its program, and Iran has also agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history. So this deal is not based on trust. It’s based on unprecedented verification. Many key details were be finalized over the next three months, and nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to.
The President made it clear that if Republicans in Congress sink this deal, they will be responsible destroying an entire international diplomatic effort.
President Obama laid out three options. Bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and delay their program for a few years, increase sanctions, which would not delay their program at all, or negotiate a comprehensive deal via diplomacy.
The Republican hawks who are craving a new war with Iran are likely to reject any deal, but what this president has negotiated is historic. The international community has come together to agree on a pathway to prevent Iran from developing their own nuclear weapons.
It is an important moment for global security that Americans have to hope that Congressional Republicans don’t screw up.
Here are some of the points that Iran has agreed to:
• 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.
• Iran has agreed to not enrich uranium over 3.67 percent for at least 15 years.
• Iran has agreed to reduce its current stockpile of about 10,000 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to 300 kg of 3.67 percent LEU for 15 years.
• 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.
• Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Inspectors will have access to uranium mines and continuous surveillance at uranium mills, where Iran produces yellowcake, for 25 years.
• 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.
• All centrifuges and enrichment infrastructure removed from Fordow and Natanz will be placed under continuous monitoring by the IAEA.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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