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Gray areas in the deal
Gray areas in the deal.Critics of the agreement were quick to zero in on the question. “This is a bad framework that will lead to a bad and dangerous deal,” said an Israeli government source in Jerusalem, who cited as a key complaint the fact that Iran “will continue its centrifuge research and development.
How a pre-dawn meeting in Switzerland produced many fuzzy areas in the Iran deal
An Obama administration fact sheet on the deal says only that Iran will be able to conduct “limited research and development” into the centrifuges which are far more efficient than the relatively crude devices Iran now operates “according to a schedule and parameters which have been agreed to” by Iran, the United States, and five other world powers. Although Iran will be barred for a decade from enriching uranium with the advanced devices, that schedule and those parameters remain otherwise unknown.
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Iran to continuec entrifuge research
Critics of the agreement were quick to zero in on the question. “This is a bad framework that will lead to a bad and dangerous deal,” said an Israeli government source in Jerusalem, who cited as a key complaint the fact that Iran “will continue its centrifuge research and development.”The research and development question is just one of a handful of key issues left unresolved, at least in public, and which could endanger the agreement’s survival.
There was much for Obama officials — and their negotiating partners in France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia — to be happy about in the framework deal, whose details must be nailed down by June 30. It requires Iran to uninstall more of its centrifuges than earlier reports had suggested would be required. It subjects Iran to extensive snooping by international inspectors, with some surveillance extending for 25 years. It mandates the redesign of a nuclear reactor so that its spent fuel can’t be used to make a bomb. But the White House and State Department will find themselves defending some questions the agreement essentially fudged.
Fate of stock of low-enriched uranium
In addition to the centrifuge research, another key issue is the fate of Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium. That is material which has been enriched much of the way toward the purity needed for a nuclear weapon, therefore making it dangerous for Iran to possess.The administration’s fact sheet says Iran must “reduce” that supply of nuclear material, from more than 10 tons currently on hand to just a few hundred pounds — less than enough to create a bomb. But it doesn’t specify how that will happen.
Diluted uranium still poses danger
US officials had long expected that Iran would agree to export most of its low-enriched uranium out of the country, ensuring that it can’t be diverted to military use. Late in the talks this week, Iran toughened its position, insisting that it would merely dilute that uranium on its own soil to a form unsuitable for weapons use.
Thursday’s deal punts that question for later. At a news conference in Lausanne, Secretary of State John Kerry said Iran had committed to selling the material on the international market or diluting it to a harmless state. But critics of the deal noted that diluted uranium can still be converted to a more dangerous form.Some nuclear experts downplayed the stockpile issue, however.Jofi Joseph, a former national security council aide in the Obama White House who handled nuclear nonproliferation issues, said it would be laborious for Iran to reconvert its uranium.
Iran stonewalls key questions
Likely to be most problematic of all is Iran’s response to questions about its past research into nuclear weapons production, including bomb designs and detonators. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran has stonewalled on all but one of a dozen questions the agency has posed. Iran has denied the IAEA access to its Parchin military base, where the United Nations nuclear watchdog group suspects it tested explosives that could be used to detonate a bomb.
Iran denies it has ever pursued a military application to its nuclear program. But U.S. intelligence officials say they are confident Iran aggressively researched bomb-making until 2003, when that aspect of its program was halted.Thursday’s agreement is vague on this score. The fact sheet says only that Iran “will implement an agreed set of measures to address the IAEA’s concerns,” but those measures aren’t detailed.
By Michael Crowley
