A nuclear agreement has been made between Iran and the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China and France plus Germany, the P5+1.
After much deliberation, an agreement has been made leaving Republicans and Democrats skeptical of the decision. The Secretary of State John Kerry established this deal back in November with a deadline of March 31 for the framework; the specific details are to follow by June 30.
The P5+1 has an objective of keeping Iran from developing nuclear warhead capability. This agreement is in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. One of the stipulations is that there is an inspection agreement of their nuclear plants. The Iranian leaders wish to generate more revenue and gain economic recovery. The negotiators must transform the plan into a comprehensive pact within the next three months.
According to President Barack Obama, this is a good deal that would address concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. However, there are a number of opponents, including Israel and Republican leaders in Congress. Their concern being that the agreement does not allow sufficient inspections of Iran’s potential to produce weapons-grade nuclear capabilities. This was an agreement in the past that Iran did not adhere to, which has caused more skepticism for this agreement.
President Obama disagrees with the opponents.
“This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon,” he said. “This deal is not based on trust. It’s based on unprecedented verification.”
Members of Congress are trying to kill the agreement or have new sanctions against Iran approved.
According to ABC News, if there were no deal, Iran could try to circumvent sanctions and cut oil deals with Asia and Europe. The absolute worst-case scenario would be that the supreme leader of Iran could pursue a nuclear weapon and the U.S. would need help from Russia and China to pressure Iran to drop their nuclear program.
With the amount of current skepticism, changes should be anticipated.
