Iran Focus

Washington, 15 Jul – The United States on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that would endorse the Iran nuclear deal, reached earlier in the week between Tehran and the major world powers, but retain an arms embargo and ban on ballistic missile technology, said diplomats ahead of a likely vote next week.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power briefed the 15-member council on the draft document behind closed doors.

The deal reached on Tuesday in Vienna with Iran was negotiated by Germany, the European Union and the five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Iran Focus

London, 14 Jul – Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on Tuesday, capping more than a decade of negotiations to curb Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

US President Barack Obama hailed a step towards a “more hopeful world” and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said it proved that “constructive engagement works”. But Israel pledged to do what it could to halt what it called an “historic surrender”.

The agreement will now be debated in the U.S. Congress, but Obama said he would veto any measure to block it.

Iran Focus

London, 14 Jul – Top Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi on Tuesday warned that an agreement reached earlier in the day between the world powers and Iran to curb its nuclear projects would “not close the mullahs’ path to deception and access to a nuclear bomb”.

“Despite many shortages and illegitimate concessions to the mullahs, the nuclear deal struck by the P5+1 and the Iranian regime forces [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei to retreat and violate the declared redlines he had repeatedly insisted on over the past 12 years, including in recent weeks”, Rajavi said in a statement.

Iran Focus

Washington, 12 Jul – United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday led a chorus of bipartisan concern from congressional leaders and 2016 presidential candidates about an Iran nuclear deal, amid reports that negotiators are expected to reach a provisional agreement.

“This is going to be a very hard sell for the administration”, the Kentucky Republican said on “Fox News Sunday”, when asked about the likelihood of Congress signing off on a deal.

Iran Focus

Washington, 10 Jul – An alternative to ongoing international negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions is to bomb its facilities, according to a senior member of US President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives.

That bombing plot would set Iran’s progress back just a few years, said Rep. Eliot Engel (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Iran Focus

London, 9 Jul – Prominent Iranian and US experts on the Iran nuclear crisis on Wednesday warned that the world powers were offering Tehran too many concessions in the ongoing nuclear negotiations.

Key Western goals in the negotiations – including one to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons capabilities – have been abandoned, said former US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Amb. Robert G. Joseph.