EU: Iran has agreed to freeze enrichment capacity

The European Union today released details of the Joint Plan of Action agreed between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), following the agreement in Geneva between the two sides on November 24, 2013. The Joint Plan of Action is an interim agreement setting out an approach towards reaching a long-term comprehensive solution. As a first step, it includes the implementation, by both sides, of a series of voluntary measures, for a duration of six months, noted the EU in a 'factsheet' about the deal. This first step could be renewed by mutual agreement. A Joint Commission of the P5+1 and Iran will be established to monitor the implementation of these measures, with the IAEA responsible for the verification of nuclear-related measures. Under the agreement, Iran will suspend enrichment above 5pct everywhere in Iran and freeze its enrichment capacity (i.e. no installation of new centrifuges, no new centrifuges fed with natural uranium and the production of centrifuges only for replacement of damaged machines). Iran will reduce significantly its stockpile of enriched uranium (all the 20pct enriched uranium stockpile needs to be converted or diluted; all newly enriched below 5pct uranium will be converted to uranium oxide). Iran will make no further advances in the development of the Heavy Water Reactor at Arak (no commissioning of the reactor, no installation of further components, no production and testing of fuel and no transfer of heavy water to the reactor). There will be no reprocessing or construction of a facility capable of reprocessing. Iran will allow enhanced monitoring and verification measures which go beyond the current level of cooperation with the IAEA. In response, the P5+1 will undertake the voluntary measures as specified in the Joint Plan of Action. This includes measures at the level of the EU and the US, as well as the commitment not to pursue new nuclear-related UNSC sanctions. The European Union will undertake not to pursue new nuclear-related EU sanctions. This commitment will be without prejudice to the full implementation of the restrictive measures which will remain in force. The EU will suspend the prohibition on the import, purchase or transport of Iranian petrochemical products. The suspension will also cover the provision of all related services such as financing, financial assistance, insurance and reinsurance, including for third states. The EU will suspend the prohibition on trade in gold and precious metals with the government of Iran, its public bodies and the Central Bank of Iran, or persons and entities acting on their behalf. The suspension will also cover related services such as transportation. The EU will increase tenfold all its authorisation thresholds with a view to allowing more financial transfers to and from Iran to be processed without authorisation requirements and therefore facilitating non-sanctioned transactions. The EU will suspend the prohibition on the provision of insurance and transport in relation to Iranian crude oil. This suspension will allow the provision of transportation and insurance services to third states importing Iranian oil. The factsheet underlines, however, that sanctions are reversible and the core sanctions architecture on financial and oil will remain in place. On January 10 the P5+1 and Iran reached a common understanding on the implementation modalities of this first step. Based on this understanding, they agreed to start the implementation of the first step of initial measures on January 20. After the IAEA has verified the implementation of the nuclear-related measures by Iran, the EU Council of Foreign Affairs, on the recommendation of the High Representative Catherine Ashton will adopt on Monday the amending legislation necessary for implementing the various EU measures in terms of suspension of sanctions. The new provisions will be directly applicable in all 28 EU member states. The EU says the initial agreement does not change the fact that Iran's nuclear activities "continue to be in violation of various UN Security Council Resolutions." "This needs to be addressed, together with all other outstanding issues, including those pointing to possible military dimensions to the Iranian nuclear programme, in future talks with Iran, in order to remove the doubts about the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme and to establish confidence and mutual trust," it concluded.