Diplomats in Switzerland just held an important press conference

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Director of Communications Kayvon Afshari
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Diplomats in Switzerland just held an important press conference

 

Diplomats representing Iran and the P5+1 just held a press conference at the Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland, in which they announced that the parties had reached an understanding that specific limits would be placed on Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of EU, US, and UN nuclear-related sanctions. The American Iranian Council was one of the first organizations to report that the negotiating parties had reached an understanding on Tuesday, and we are pleased to see that it has now been outlined in a public setting.

The European Union’s High Representative Federica Mogherini announced the following specific measures which the parties have agreed to. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also announced the same measures in Persian:

  • There will be no fissile material at Iran’s Fordow plant

  • An international joint venture will assist Iran in redesigning and rebuilding a modernized heavy water reactor at Arak, that cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium

  • There will be no reprocessing plant, and spent fuel will be exported

  • The IAEA will be permitted the use of modern technology and have unannounced access, through agreed procedures, to clarify past and present issues

  • Iran will take part in international cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy, which can include supply of power and research reactors

  • The European Union will terminate the implementation of all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions and the US will cease the application of all nuclear-related secondary economic and financial sanctions, simultaneous with the IAEA verifying implementation by Iran of its key nuclear commitments

  • A new UN Security Council resolution will terminate all previous nuclear related resolutions and incorporate certain restrictive measures for a mutually-agreed period of time.

This is a positive step toward a final deal, one that the AIC has pushed for both publicly and behind the scenes. Throughout this ongoing process, our supporters have been playing a meaningful role in promoting a diplomatic solution, and we wish to thank them. Still, much work remains to be done ahead of the June 30 deadline toward a comprehensive deal.

The next few months will be particularly difficult, as thorny, technical issues are negotiated. As such, we need to work together to sustain our pro-diplomacy efforts so that the talks to not derail. Moving forward, the United States and her negotiating partners must deliver sanctions relief to Iran, while Iran must continue to comply with the monitoring and verification measures it has agreed to in order to further assure the international community that its nuclear program is purely peaceful.

Similarly, for the deal to be sustainable, domestic constituencies in the US and Iran must come around to supporting a deal. Specifically, Iran’s revolutionaries and the US Congress must see that a diplomatic solution to this decade-long international crisis is in the national interest of both their countries, as well as the region.

Finally, while diplomatically solving the nuclear issue would be a major positive step, the Council continues to believe that US-Iran engagement must not stop there. Rather, broader US-Iran relations must be addressed and all issues must be put on the table. Eventually moving past the nuclear issue would be one step toward achieving the ultimate goal which the AIC has led the way for 25 years: improved relations between the United States and Iran.

Sincerely,

The American Iranian Council

END

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Kayvon Afshari

Kayvon Afshari managed the campaign to elect Hooshang Amirahmadi as President of Iran. In this role, he directed the campaign’s event planning, publicity, online social media, web analytics, and delivered speeches. Mr. Afshari has also been working at the CBS News foreign desk for over five years. He has coordinated coverage of Iran’s 2009 post-election demonstrations, the Arab Spring, the earthquake in Haiti, and many other stories of international significance. He holds a Master in International Relations from New York University’s Department of Politics, and graduated with distinction from McGill University in 2007 with a double major in political science and Middle Eastern studies. At NYU, his research focused on quantitative analysis and the Middle East with an emphasis on US-Iran relations. In his 2012 Master’s thesis, he devised a formula to predict whether Israel would launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, concluding that an overt strike would not materialize.