GENEVA -- Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on an historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, diplomats confirmed.| Freezes 'parts' of their development: which parts, the parts the Iranians have already figured a way around? |
"We have reached an agreement," Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a Twitter posting.
"We have reached an agreement," echoed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a separate posting.
Negotiations had run into the late evening, with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia the European Union and the United States huddled in a hotel conference room. Several of the diplomats met earlier in the day with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who told reporters that the parties remained divided on key details of the six-month trial deal.
The talks had remained snarled despite the last-minute intervention of Kerry, who flew to Geneva for the second time in two weeks to try to break the impasse. The Obama administration has been seeking to quickly finalize an agreement in the face of threats by Congress to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran.
The marathon discussions with Iran were described by Western diplomats as "very difficult" and "intense," and several officials had sought to lower expectations that a resolution could be reached before Sunday, when Kerry and the other foreign ministers were due to depart.
Kerry, Zarif and the lead E.U. negotiator, Catherine Ashton, met late Saturday, but the session ended with no announcement of progress. Instead, Iran's deputy foreign minister hardened his country's position.
Although "98 percent" of the deal was done, Iran said it could not accept any agreement that does not recognize what it calls its uranium enrichment rights, Abbas Araghchi told reporters.
| In other words, the "deal" is meaningless: the core is Iran's plan to enrich uranium to the point that it can build bombs. That's what all this is about. The Mad Mullahs™ won't give that away, ever. |
Araghchi and Zarif have insisted that the deal hinges on international recognition of Iran's right to enrich uranium, a matter of deep national pride.
| And of killing Jooooz... |
The sides also continued to haggle over details of the limited sanctions relief to be offered to Iran in return for scaling back its nuclear program, diplomats said. The relief would reportedly include freeing up a small portion of Iran's overseas currency accounts and easing other trade restrictions.
The most painful sanction, affecting Iran's oil and banking sectors, would remain until the end of the deal's first phase, depending on Iran's willingness to accept permanent curbs on its nuclear program, Western officials said.
Still another obstacle is Iran's partially completed heavy-water reactor in the city of Arak. Western powers are pushing for a freeze on construction of the reactor's core, which could, if completed, give Iran a pathway toward obtaining plutonium for nuclear weapons.