Peace hatchling [By Jiao Haiyang/China.org.cn] |
It's a sigh of relief and a moment of joy for Iran and the six world powers. A historic deal has been reached after marathon talks in Vienna, ending more than a decade of wrangling and bitterness over Iran's controversial nuclear program, which led to the country's international isolation and crippling economic sanctions.
The controversy over Iran's nuclear program was fuelled in 2002 by intelligence reports that Iran was involved in a process to develop strategic weapons. Reports also claimed that the Iranians continued their covert nuclear weapons research until 2003. Iran denied the reports and maintained that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes. However, it faced international pressure, sanctions and the possibility of attacks, which ultimately forced it to start negotiations.
An interim deal between Iran and the so-called P5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany) was reached in 2013. Several rounds of talks have been held since then, and both sides have finally agreed upon a formula in which Iran will give inspectors access to nuclear facilities to see for themselves that the country was not involved in any kind of weapons development.
The new agreement adheres to the general principle that Iran must abandon any desire for nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of sanctions. This stipulation was already agreed to in the political agreement signed in April, which required that Iran scale down its civilian nuclear program and place it under the supervision of a reliable international inspection regime.
In return, the P5+1 powers would gradually remove sanctions, helping Iran revive its normal international commercial and economic activities. Sanctions have hit not only the country's consumer economy but also targeted its defense sector and nuclear industry.
The main stumbling block was the issue of sequencing the timing of removing sanctions. Iran wanted immediate relief, while the P5+1 pushed to link sanctions removal to the release of satisfactory reports by International Atomic Energy Agency experts that Iran was complying with the obligations to cut back on nuclear activities as stipulated in the agreement.
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