NEW YORK — After a long day of diplomacy,
foreign ministers from six world powers and Iran met Monday night at the
UN headquarters in New York to discuss topics related to the
implementation of a comprehensive nuclear deal signed on July 14. During
the hour-long meeting, US Secretary of State John Kerry called upon
Iran to uphold its obligations under the agreement.
The
Monday meeting marked the first time that teams from the P5+1 group of
nations — the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany — and Iran met
since concluding the deal, which provides Tehran with relief from biting
sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
According to initial reports, the meeting went well.
“Excellent,” said French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius as he walked out of the meeting with some of his European
colleagues. None of the ministers stopped to detail, however, the
contents of the discussion.
Shortly after leaving the conference, Kerry
tweeted that it was a “good meeting with colleagues on the
implementation of the Iran deal.”
According to State Department spokesman John
Kirby, during the meeting, “the parties provided updates on the relevant
steps being taken towards implementation of the deal, with the
Secretary reiterating again that, when Iran has completed its nuclear
commitments, the US will be prepared to meet our commitments to lift the
relevant sanctions.”
Kerry discussed the recent appointment of
Ambassador Steve Mull to lead the US government’s efforts to implement
the deal and, Kirby recounted, “called on Iran to undertake all of its
nuclear steps in a timely and thorough basis – including its commitments
to the [International Atomic Energy Agency] under the Roadmap – in
order to proceed to Implementation Day.”
The State Department spokesman said that the
parties would conduct ongoing discussions “in order to ensure Iran is
able to complete the technical requirements of the agreement.” He
emphasized that “all parties agreed to continue working in good faith
toward implementation of the deal.”
The agreement is expected to enter the
adoption phase on or around October 18. On that date, US President
Barack Obama will sign a sanctions waiver that will only go into effect
after Iran has carried out its predetermined obligations that were
included in the nuclear deal.
Those obligations include satisfying the
demands of the IAEA — the UN’s atomic watchdog — regarding suspected
activities at the Parchin site, and coming to an agreement with the
nuclear oversight organization about reporting on the suspected previous
military dimensions of Tehran’s nuclear program.
Among its other obligations, Iran will have to
remove thousands of centrifuges from its nuclear facilities as well as
the core at the Arak heavy water plutonium reactor.
Monday night’s meeting was hardly the final
discussion of the nuclear deal slated to take place on the sidelines of
the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On Tuesday, the same
foreign ministers will attend a lunch hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon.
On the business end, Frederica Mogherini, the
high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and
security policy who chaired Monday evening’s meeting, is expected to
meet Tuesday with the IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano to discuss the
IAEA inspections protocols.
Monday evening’s meeting, while brief, was
laden with symbolism. State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf noted
that it was held in the same conference room where, two years earlier,
P5+1 members had initiated nuclear talks with Iranian representatives on
the sidelines of the 2013 General Assembly.
The Iran nuclear deal has been held up during
this General Assembly as a model for potential accomplishments of
international cooperation, even among states that share deep mutual
distrust.
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