Iran to issue fact sheet to address concerns of nationals

Iran will soon issue a fact sheet about the solutions reached in the recent nuclear talks in Laussane of Switzerland, semi-official Fars news agency reported on Tuesday.

In a closed-door meeting with Iranian lawmakers, Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said the Iranian fact sheet about the the joint statement of Iran and the P5+1 will be issued by the Foreign Ministry in the following days to address the concerns of the Iranian nation and lawmakers.

From the parliament's perspective, the issuance of the fact sheet by Iran's Foreign Ministry is the most important thing that would happen in the following days, Javad Karimi Qodousi member of Iran's Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission was quoted as saying by semi-official Fars news agency.

Iran has some different interpretations on the details of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) outlined by the United States last Thursday.

Quoting a summary of JCPOA released earlier by the Iranian Foreign Ministery, Iran media media reported sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program "will be lifted immediately when a final deal is implemented."

According to the detailed JCPOA released by the U.S. Department of State, however, the U.S. and EU nuclear-related sanctions "will be suspended only after International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) varification of Iran's performance of its obligations. And these sanctions will "snap back into place if at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitment."

Iran and United States also seem to have different ideas about the nature of "solutions" reached in Lausanne.

Zarif said repeatedly that what was reached in Lausanne is not legally binding and Iran has no obligation at the moment.

But in the text of the U.S. JCPOA, expressions such as "Iran has agreed that," "Iran will be required to" and "Iran will not" are used very frequently, suggesting Iran has already made specific commitments.

The Iranian summary of JCPOA also did not mention some terms released in the U.S. version, such as "Iran has agreed to not build any new facilities for the purpose of enriching uranium for 15 years" and "Iran will only enrich uranium at the Natanz facility, with only 5,060 IR-1 first-generation centrifuges for 10 years."

However, Zarif and Salehi told the Majlis on Tuesday that the country would keep its latest centrifuges running even if a final deal is reached and implemented. They say Iran will inject UF6 gas into the latest generation of its centrifuges as soon as a final nuclear deal goes into effect, according to Fars News Agency.

"The AEOI chief and the foreign minister presented hopeful remarks about nuclear technology R&D which, they said, have been agreed on during the recent nuclear talks. They informed Majlis that gas will be injected into IR-8 (centrifuge) with the start of the (implementation of the potential final) agreement," Qodousi was quoted as saying.

On Sunday, an Iranian senior lawmaker said that the Iranian Majlis should approve the implementation of an Additional Protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), as a transparency measure in a potential nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers.

"The implementation of the Additional Protocol will certainly require Majlis endorsement, which the Iranian negotiating team had announced," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of Iran's Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, was quoted as saying by Iran Student News Agency as saying.

In order for the country's parliament to pass a bill on implementing the protocol, Iran's nuclear dossier needs to be normalized and returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from the UN Security Council.

In addition, the UN Security Council sanctions against Iran should be lifted, he said.

"Majlis has many opposing views about the protocol and the road to approve it is not smooth," Boroujerdi said.

Representatives from Iran and the P5+1 group (the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany) on Thursday concluded the nine-day Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne of Switzerland and reached common solutions to outstanding issues in a run for a comprehensive deal by June 30.

According to U.S. interpretation of JCPOA, Iran has agreed to implement the Additional Protocol to NPT, providing the IAEA much greater access and information regarding Iran's nuclear program, including both declared and undeclared facilities.

Under the solutions, Iran will have to cut its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 98 percent over a period of 15 years, while its unfinished Arak heavy water reactor will not produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Tehran will also reduce its number of centrifuges to 6,104 from around 19,000, roughly two-thirds of the whole amount.

In return, Iran will receive sanctions relief, if it verifiably abides by its commitments. Endit