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It is an interim agreement, not a treaty (which means, among other things, that it doesn’t require Senate ratification). It is meant as a first step towards a comprehensive treaty to be negotiated in the next six months. More than that, it expires in six months. In other words, if Iran and the P5+1 nations (the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany) can’t agree on a follow-on accord in six months, nobody is stuck with a deal that was never meant to be permanent. There is no opportunity for traps and trickery.

Meanwhile, Iran must do the following things: halt the enrichment of all uranium above 5 per cent and freeze the stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.5 per cent; neutralise its stockpile of uranium that’s been enriched to 20 per cent; stop producing, installing or modernising centrifuges; stop constructing more enrichment facilities; halt all activities at the Arak nuclear reactor (which has the potential to produce nuclear weapons made of plutonium); permit wider and more intrusive measures of verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency, including daily inspections of all facilities.

Without going into a lot of technical detail, the point is this: the agreement makes it impossible for the Iranians to make any further progress towards making a nuclear weapon in the next six months – and, if the talks break down after that and the Iranians decide at that point to start building a nuclear arsenal, it will take them much longer.

In exchange for these restraints, the P5+1 nations agree to free up about $6 billion of Iran’s long-frozen foreign assets. This amounts to a very small percentage of the sanctions imposed on Iran’s energy and financial sectors. Meanwhile, all other sanctions will remain in place and continue to be vigorously enforced; the agreement doesn’t affect those sanctions at all…….

It’s time for all the critics to take a deep breath, read the terms of the agreement, recognise that the deal goes way beyond what anybody could reasonably have hoped for, and give this thing a chance. It is in US, Israeli and Arab interests for Iran to do things that make it harder to build a nuclear bomb. And if a detente-of-sorts evolves from these talks, if it becomes possible for the US and Iran to discuss, then maybe act upon, issues of mutual interest, then that is certainly in our interest, whatever anybody else thinks.

The agreement struck at the weekend is a first step. In a year’s time, it may be seen as a small step and a brief, naive step at that. But for now it’s a step rife with historic possibilities; it’s a step that should be taken with caution but also with hope and gusto.  http://www.theage.com.au/comment/iran-nuclear-agreement-rich-with-possibilities-20131126-2y7z5.html#ixzz2ls91Y0ve