WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama hailed an agreement struck yesterday to curb Iran’s nuclear program over six months and argued that imposing additional U.S. sanctions could scupper the deal.“Now is the time to give diplomacy a chance to succeed,” Obama said in a written statement after the European Union said that Iran and six major powers had reached an accord to implement a Nov. 24 nuclear agreement with Iran.
That agreement is designed to curtail Iran’s nuclear activities for a six-month period beginning on Jan. 20 in exchange for sanctions relief from the six major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. Obama also urged the U.S. Congress not to impose additional sanctions on Iran, saying that doing so risked undermining the Nov. 24 agreement, known as the Joint Plan of Action (JPA), which aims to give the two sides six months to reach a comprehensive deal to address all questions about whether Iran seeks nuclear arms.Iran denies this, saying its program is for solely peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and medical isotopes.
“Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully, and I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation,” Obama said in the statement, echoing a previous veto threat. Obama said he had “no illusions about how hard it will be” to get a comprehensive agreement with Iran but that it was vital “for the sake of our national security and the peace and security of the world” to try to find a diplomatic solution.
The United States and Israel have both refused to rule out the possibility of military action against Iran’s nuclear program if the matter cannot be resolved diplomatically.
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Separately, senior U.S. officials for the first time offered details on how the estimated $7 billion in sanctions relief envisaged in the Nov. 24 agreement will be meted out.
The officials, who spoke to reporters on condition that they not be identified, said that some sanctions relief will start on the first day of the six-month agreement’s implementation – Jan. 20 – and some withheld until its final day.