The Associated Press reported on Monday that a document it had obtained in Vienna, where the offices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are located, could spark questions about assurances that were made by President Barack Obama and other Western leaders.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran’s foreign minister is extolling the country’s ability to bring its nuclear program back on track as limits on the 15-year accord ease in the coming years.
On Thursday, the first anniversary of the signing of the deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the deal has made the world safer despite naysayers’ predictions as he marked the agreement’s one-year anniversary.
A secret document obtained by AP shows that an add-on agreement to the nuclear deal signed by Iran and six world powers in July past year would, after a decade, allow Iran to upgrade parts of its nuclear program.
An additional concern comes in the reaction of Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif, who confirmed the AP report, calling his country’s plans to expand its uranium enrichment program a “matter of pride”. Iran’s breakout time to a nuclear device would consequently be halved from one year to six months or less.
The diplomat who shared the document with the AP described it as an add-on agreement to the nuclear deal.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Iran to cease activities that would further stoke tensions in the region, carefully refraining from calling the missile launches direct violations of the deal or Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear accord.
That will give Iran a huge potential boost in enrichment capacity, including bomb making should it choose to do so. It says that as of January 2027 – 11 years after the deal was implemented – Iran can start replacing its mainstay centrifuges with thousands of advanced machines.
Iran insists it is not interested in nuclear weapons, and the pact is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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The Obama administration, which lauded the Iran deal as a great success, has tried to downplay the revelation of the secret side deal with the Iranians. “As for heavy water, we are also ready to assist Iran in this issue by buying the needed amount of this material”. However, details were foggy on what would happen when the stipulations of the deal expire, which varies from 10 to 15 years.
