Iran’s FM extolls country’s ability to restore nuke program

Iran’s chief nuclear envoy Abbas Araqchi said the world powers with whom it concluded a deal previous year to shrink its atomic programme in exchange for sanctions relief had agreed with Tehran on Tuesday that obstacles to banking with Iran should be removed.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday that her country acknowledges and welcomes Iran’s implementation of the July 14 nuclear deal.

Presenting the Secretary-General’s first report on implementation of the resolution, Mr. Feltman today told the Council that since 16 January of this year, the Secretary-General “has not received any report, nor is he aware of any open source information, regarding the supply, sale, transfer or export to Iran of nuclear-related items undertaken contrary to the provisions of the JCPOA”. The unnamed diplomat who shared the document – whose work has focused on Iran’s nuclear program for more than a decade – said it was an add-on agreement to the main deal that is formally separate but actually is an integral part of the deal.

While the secret document hasn’t been made public, US officials say members of Congress have been able to see it. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share or discuss the document. However, details were foggy on what would happen when the stipulations of the deal expire, which varies from 10 to 15 years.

The advanced centrifuges are five times as efficient, and the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon – often referred to as “breakout time” – would drop from a year to six months. “As for breakout times after the initial 10 years of the deal, the breakout time does not go off a cliff nor do we believe that it would be immediately cut in half, to six months”.

Iran insists it is not interested in nuclear weapons, and the pact is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

UNITED NATIONS-A United Nations report on the Iran nuclear deal hailed the country for keeping its nuclear commitments, while criticizing actions unrelated to its nuclear program but that are seen as damaging to the momentum and spirit of the deal.

Critics of the Iran deal at the time of its signing pointed out that the terms of the deal would allow for Iran to resume its nuclear program after a decade.

The deal provides Iran with sanctions relief in exchange for its nuclear constraints. “As for heavy water, we are also ready to assist Iran in this issue by buying the needed amount of this material”.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.