POLITICS
05/08/2018 02:04 pm ET
Updated 1 hour ago
[SIZE=7]What To Know About The Iran Nuclear Deal[/SIZE]
A guide to the 2015 international agreement that Donald Trump has plunged into crisis.
By Nick Robins-Early and Jesselyn Cook
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. will withdraw from the international nuclear accord with Iran, the landmark 2015 agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear development program in return for sanctions relief.
By ending America’s participation in the deal, Trump fulfills a major campaign promise. But the decision could set the stage for an international political crisis and uncertainty over the future of Iran’s nuclear program.
Here’s what you need to know about the agreement:
[SIZE=5]The Deal[/SIZE]
Also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal is the result of a decade of international negotiations to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Although Iran is banned from possessing nuclear weapons as a state party of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it failed to disclose the existence of its uranium-enrichment program for 18 years, causing alarm when its clandestine program was revealed in 2003.
Negotiators from Iran and six other world powers, including the United Nations Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany, reached the historic agreement on July 14, 2015. It placed strict limits on Tehran’s nuclear program that were set to last for more than a decade.
The United Nations Security Council endorsed the deal on July 20, 2015, officially agreeing to “terminate” U.N. sanctions on Iran.
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DANISH SIDDIQUI / REUTERS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends a meeting with Muslim leaders and scholars in Hyderabad, India, February 15, 2018.
The JCPOA was a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” then-President Barack Obama said at the time it was agreed. “This is our best bet by far to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon,” Obama added. Tehran had always maintained that its nuclear development was only intended for energy and other peaceful purposes, but fears the Islamic Republic was working on developing a nuclear bomb had been rising in the West.
Critics of the agreement, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, argued that the deal at its core was not tough enough on Iran.
“Not a single nuclear facility is shut down, including the underground facilities that [Iran builds] illicitly,” Netanyahu said in 2015.
“Thousands of centrifuges will keep spinning, enriching uranium. That’s a very bad deal.”
Trump has echoed these concerns, repeatedly calling it “the worst deal ever.”
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KEVIN LAMARQUE VIA GETTY IMAGES
[SIZE=5]What It Does[/SIZE]
At its most basic level, the deal meant Iran agreed to put heavy restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for world powers lifting economic sanctions that target the country. The deal lasts until 2030, with some restrictions expiring before then and other inspection measures extending years beyond that date.
Prior to the agreement, international sanctions and trade embargoes had cost the Iranian economy tens of billions of dollars.
Iran stood to benefit from a potential increase in foreign investment and access to the Swift international banking system. In return, the rest of the parties to the agreement believed they had security that Iran was always at least a year away from being able to build a nuclear weapon during the time that the deal was enforced.
Under the terms of the deal, Iran agreed to remove or reduce many of the components needed to create nuclear weapons. The country accepted a 98 percent reduction of its uranium stockpile, the removal of a reactor core used to make plutonium at the Arak heavy water plant and the reduction of thousands of centrifuges needed to enrich uranium. Iran also agreed to limit its research and development work, as well as several other restrictions.
The deal contained strict rules on monitoring and inspection of Iran’s nuclear sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency was required to extensively monitor Iran’s nuclear facilities, and IAEA workers had access to a live video stream of areas including Iranian uranium enrichment plants. Inspectors also have wide-ranging access to sites within the country that they deem necessary to investigate. While conducting this monitoring and inspection regime, the IAEA confirmed nine times that Iran was in compliance with the JCPOA.