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CONCEPT – JCPOA
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- Iran nuclear deal : In 2015, Iran agreed a long-term deal on its nuclear programme with the P5+1 group of world powers - the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany. It came after years of tension over Iran's alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran insisted that its nuclear programme was entirely peaceful, but the international community disagreed.
- Iran’s promise : Iran agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow in international inspectors in return for the lifting of crippling economic economic sanctions.
- Commitments set out in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA):
- Uranium enrichment : Iran's uranium stockpile will be reduced by 98% to 300kg for 15 years. Enriched uranium is used to make reactor fuel, but also nuclear weapons. Iran had two facilities - Natanz and Fordo - where uranium hexafluoride gas was fed into centrifuges to separate out the most fissile isotope, U-235. Low-enriched uranium, which has a 3%-4% concentration of U-235, can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power plants. "Weapons-grade" uranium is 90% enriched. In July 2015, Iran had almost 20,000 centrifuges. Under the JCPOA, it was limited to installing no more than 5,060 of the oldest and least efficient centrifuges at Natanz until 2026 - 15 years after the deal's "implementation day" in January 2016.
- Iran's uranium stockpile was reduced by 98% to 300kg (660lbs), a figure that must not be exceeded until 2031. It must also keep the stockpile's level of enrichment at 3.67%. By January 2016, Iran had drastically reduced the number of centrifuges installed at Natanz and Fordo, and shipped tonnes of low-enriched uranium to Russia.
- Research and development must take place only at Natanz and be limited until 2024.
- No enrichment will be permitted at Fordo until 2031, and the underground facility will be converted into a nuclear, physics and technology centre. The 1,044 centrifuges at the site will produce radioisotopes for use in medicine, agriculture, industry and science.
- Plutonium pathway : Iran is redesigning the Arak reactor so it cannot produce any weapons-grade plutonium Iran had been building a heavy-water nuclear facility near the town of Arak. Spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor contains plutonium suitable for a nuclear bomb. World powers had originally wanted Arak dismantled because of the proliferation risk. Under an interim nuclear deal agreed in 2013, Iran agreed not to commission or fuel the reactor.Under the JCPOA, Iran said it would redesign the reactor so it could not produce any weapons-grade plutonium, and that all spent fuel would be sent out of the country as long as the modified reactor exists.
- Iran will not be permitted to build additional heavy-water reactors or accumulate any excess heavy water until 2031.
- Covert activity : Iran is required to allow IAEA inspectors to access any site they deem suspicious
- Obamaspeak : At the time of the agreement, then-US President Barack Obama's administration expressed confidence that the JCPOA would prevent Iran from building a nuclear programme in secret. Iran, it said, had committed to "extraordinary and robust monitoring, verification, and inspection".
- IAEA Inspectors : Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, continuously monitor Iran's declared nuclear sites and also verify that no fissile material is moved covertly to a secret location.
- Iran also agreed to implement the Additional Protocol to their IAEA Safeguards Agreement, which allows inspectors to access any site anywhere in the country they deem suspicious.
- 'Break-out time‘ : A UN ban on the import of ballistic missile technology will remain in place for up to eight years. Before July 2015, Iran had a large stockpile of enriched uranium and almost 20,000 centrifuges, enough to create eight to 10 bombs, according to the Obama administration. US experts estimated then that if Iran had decided to rush to make a bomb, it would take two to three months until it had enough 90%-enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon - the so-called "break-out time“.
- Iran also agreed not to engage in activities, including research and development, which could contribute to the development of a nuclear bomb. In December 2015, the IAEA's board of governors voted to end its decade-long investigation into the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme.
- Lifting sanctions : Iran estimated that the fall in oil exports was costing it between $4bn and $8bn each month. Sanctions previously imposed by the UN, US and EU in an attempt to force Iran to halt uranium enrichment crippled its economy, costing the country more than $160bn (£118bn) in oil revenue from 2012 to 2016 alone. Under the deal, Iran gained access to more than $100bn in assets frozen overseas, and was able to resume selling oil on international markets and using the global financial system for trade.
- Donald Trump : He said that the US would violate the Iran nuclear agreement, nearly three years after the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was struck. In exiting the JCPOA, Trump broke from US allies in Europe and has potentially triggered a new crisis in the Gulf. Trump justified the exit by claiming that Iran is building a nuclear program, without providing evidence that this is true.
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