2nd LD Writethru: UN chief hails "historic agreement" on Iran nuclear issue

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday "warmly" welcomed "the historic agreement" reached in Vienna on the Iran nuclear issue, calling it a "testament to the value of dialogue."

The secretary-general congratulated the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany and Iran for reaching this agreement, said a statement issued by Ban's spokesman to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Ban currently is in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to attend a UN conference on financing for development.

"I know that an immense amount of work went into this, and I admire the determination and the commitment of the negotiators -- as well as the courage of the leaders who approved the deal that was so painstakingly worked out by their teams in Vienna and elsewhere," the statement said.

The new deal, reached at the end of the two-day diplomatic efforts in Vienna, culminated 20 months of negotiations to end a twelve-year crisis over Iran's nuclear program, which Western countries have regarded with suspicion.

The text of the deal is around 100 pages with five annexes, which specify key areas of the Iranian nuclear issue, including sanction relief and an action plan, nuclear technology cooperation, the committee in charge of monitoring the implementation, the capping of Iran's nuclear capacity, and a draft of the UN Security Council resolution, reports said.

Under the deal, Iran would ship most of its nuclear stockpile to Russia, blocking the technical path to a nuclear bomb.

"I hope -- and indeed believe -- that this agreement will lead to greater mutual understanding and cooperation on the many serious security challenges in the Middle East," the statement said.

"As such it could serve as a vital contribution to peace and stability both in the region and beyond," it said. "The United Nations stands ready to fully cooperate with the parties in the process of implementing this historic and important agreement."

The comprehensive deal would be sent to the UN Security Council shortly and still needs to be endorsed by the Council, and the period before the comprehensive deal starts to be implemented by all sides could be around half a year, the reports said.

The deal would specify that the related UN resolutions on economic and financial sanctions against Iran will be terminated all at once under a UN resolution and in an agreed framework, Iranian media reported.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani confirmed the deal on Twitter, saying it "shows constructive engagement works."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he welcomed the nuclear deal and the world could breathe a sigh of relief, adding that countries negotiating the deal had made a hard choice for stability and cooperation.

U.S. President Barack Obama said the nuclear deal was an opportunity worth seizing and threatened to use his veto power if the U.S. Congress prevented its successful implementation.

But he cautioned that U.S. sanctions against Tehran would stay in place for "human rights violations" and other issues.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in an email Tuesday that Iran and the nuclear watchdog had agreed to cooperate to resolve Tehran's past suspicious nuclear activities.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said he has signed a roadmap with Iran, "a significant step forward toward clarifying outstanding issues regarding Iran's nuclear program."

According to the roadmap, Iran would address the IAEA's concern over the so-called possible military dimensions of its nuclear plan, including resolving the Parchin issue, a military site where the IAEA suspected Iran might have carried out explosive tests relevant to the nuclear weapon plan.

Over the past 18 months, Iran and the six countries have resolved many tough issues which were once seen as insurmountable tasks, such as capping Iran's nuclear capacity and giving greater transparency to Tehran's atomic plan. Endi