Breakthrough in Iran nuclear talks

World powers have reached a deal with Iran on limiting Iranian nuclear activity in return for the lifting of international economic sanctions.

US President Barack Obama said that with the deal, “every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off” for Iran. His Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, said it opened a “new chapter” in Iran’s relations with the world.

Negotiations between Iran and six world powers – the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany – began in 2006. The so-called P5+1 want Iran to scale back its sensitive nuclear activities to ensure that it cannot build a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which wants crippling international sanctions lifted, has always insisted that its nuclear work is peaceful.

There has been stiff resistance to a deal from conservatives both in Iran and the US. The US Congress has 60 days in which to consider the deal, though Obama said he would veto any attempt to block it.

Israel’s government has also warned against an agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “historic mistake” that would provide Iran with “hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine and its expansion and aggression throughout the Middle East and across the globe”.

He later said that he did not regard Israel as being bound by this agreement. “We will always defend ourselves,” he added.

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In a televised address, Mr Obama insisted the deal would make the world “safer and more secure”, and provided for a rigorous verification regime. “This deal is not built on trust – it is built on verification,” he said.

Immediately afterwards, Mr Rouhani gave his own televised address, in which he said the prayers of Iranians had “come true”. He said the deal would lead to the removal of all sanctions, adding: “The sanctions regime was never successful, but at the same time it affected people’s lives.”

After 12 years, world powers had finally “recognised the nuclear activities of Iran”, he said.

Iran’s enemies remain of the view that the Iranians are hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons at some point and have merely agreed to a delay in return for a variety of short-term concessions.

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