WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry each issued statements Thursday on the one-year anniversary of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 power.
The President issued the following statement from the White House:
“Today marks one year since the conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal—known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—by representatives of the United States, Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, and the European Union. Over the last year, the Iran Deal has succeeded in rolling back Iran’s nuclear program, avoiding further conflict and making us safer.
“During the past year, Iran has implemented its nuclear-related commitments, as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Iran has shipped out 98 percent of its enriched uranium, dismantled two thirds of its centrifuges, filled its plutonium production reactor with concrete, and adopted the most intrusive inspection and verification program ever negotiated for a nuclear program. IAEA reports have confirmed that Iran is complying with its commitments. As a result, all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon remain closed, and Iran’s breakout time has been extended from two to three months to about a year. The United States and our negotiating partners have also fully implemented our commitments to lift nuclear-related sanctions, and we will continue to uphold our commitments as long as Iran continues to abide by the deal.
“The JCPOA demonstrates what can be achieved by principled diplomacy and a sustained commitment to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. America’s willingness to engage directly with Iran opened the door to talks, which led to the international unity and sustained engagement that culminated in the JCPOA. We still have serious differences with Iran, but the United States, our partners, and the world are more secure because of the JCPOA.”
While in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also addressed the issue. Here is a text of his comments provided by the U.S. State Department:
“One year ago today, China, Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain, the United States, known as the P5+1, succeeded after several years of intensive negotiations in securing an agreement with Iran in order to restrain Iran’s nuclear program in a way that guaranteed to the world that Iran would not be pursuing a nuclear weapon.
“From that moment, 19,000 centrifuges have been put under IAEA scrutiny and storage. The Arak plutonium reactor, plutonium – the core of that reactor has been completely dismantled and destroyed. The 98 percent of the stockpile that Iran had of enriched uranium has been moved out of the country, and there is a day-to-day monitoring of the remaining limit to 300 kilograms. The limitation exists today on enrichment at 3.67 percent, and we have an ongoing process of exchange of information and dialogue which is producing a significant ability to be able to monitor effectively, and, if and when there is a question, to be able to deal with those questions.
“So as of today, one year later, a program that so many people said will not work, a program that people said is absolutely doomed to see cheating and be broken and will make the more dangerous, has, in fact, made the world safer, lived up to its expectations, and thus far produced an ability to be able to create a peaceful nuclear program with Iran living up to its part of this bargain and obligation.
“That is very significant, and what I think it underscores are several things. Number one, the world is safer today because conflict in the region is not calculated on the basis of the potential of a nuclear confrontation or nuclear explosion, and because we have the ability to be able to work through some issues which we’ve seen, for instance with our sailors who stumbled into Iranian waters and within 24 hours we were able to get them out. That could not have happened prior to this agreement having taken place.
“It also, I believe, underscores the value of diplomacy itself. And that’s why we will continue to try to work first, before we decide to go into conflict, to see if we can resolve these kinds of problems.
“And my final comment is that there are continuing issues. Nobody pretends that some of the challenges we have with Iran have somehow been wiped away. This program was about a nuclear track and about a nuclear program. It was not about the other issues that are involved in the relationships of a number of nations in the region and the United States. So we continue to focus on those issues, whether in Syria or Yemen, on terrorism. There are other real issues, and we will continue and are continuing to focus on those issues. But we believe that the door that has been opened as a consequence of this dialogue gives us an opportunity to be able to do exactly that.
“And finally, we need to continue to work and we will continue to work and we have a specially designated ambassador whose day-to-day effort is leading the team to make sure that this deal continues to be lived up to, that we continue to be able to resolve any problems, and that we build on this as an example of what you can do if you marry interests and you marry values in a way that happens to meet the needs of a broader cross-section of countries and people. And I think that’s what we’ve succeeded in doing here.
“So we’ll continue to work at it. There are always potential for hiccups, for a moment of questioning about one component or another; but fundamentally, I think the world can take pride in the fact that this multilateral, complicated negotiation has produced a result which makes the region less volatile and makes the world itself safer in terms of nuclear proliferation.”
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