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Iran nuclear deal great feat: President Rouhani

Saturday, 25 February 2017 10:21 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 25 February 2017 11:41 AM ]

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gestures during a speech at a conference bringing together personnel responsible for executive work in Iran’s 12th presidential election, in the capital, Tehran, February 25, 2017.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has hailed a nuclear deal between Iran and six other countries as “a great feat,” which changed a global atmosphere of hostility toward the Islamic Republic to one of cooperation with the country.

President Rouhani made the remarks at a Saturday conference bringing together personnel responsible for executive work in Iran’s 12th presidential election, which is due in May 2017.

The nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), removed a series of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that had been imposed on Iran under Chapter VII of the UN’s Charter.

Rouhani said the JCPOA saw the nullification of those resolutions — for a first time in the political history of the world — without recourse to war or regime change.

“There has been no country whatsoever whose affairs have been taken up under the UN Charter’s Chapter VII... unless they (UNSC members) either toppled that establishment or imposed war on it; say it if you know of one such country,” the Iranian president said.

He said Iran had the resolutions lifted by the very countries that had imposed them.

As a result of the accord, Iran has been using IR-8 centrifuges, which have a productivity 20 times higher than the centrifuges used earlier, Rouhani said.

Iran has also been able to engage in global commerce in the field of nuclear technology, he said, adding that the Islamic Republic has sold heavy water, a nuclear byproduct, to the United States and Russia, two permanent members of the UNSC.

Attendees stand up as Iran’s national anthem is played during a conference in the capital, February 25, 2017.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president said the JCPOA was a “win-win” outcome for all the parties involved.

Iran negotiated the deal with the US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany for some 22 months before it was finalized on July 14, 2015. The agreement took effect on January 16, 2016.

Under the accord, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, inter alia, the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The UNSC later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

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