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Comment and Opinion

FT Editorial: Obama must hold firm on Iran deal terms

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The US and its allies have long feared Iran’s nuclear programme is designed to build an atomic weapon. At their last meeting in the Swiss city of Lausanne in April, they reached a framework deal with Tehran that would avert this. Iran would sharply restrict its programme for the next 10 years, maintaining a limited uranium enrichment capability and curbing atomic research. In return, the west would begin reducing the energy and financial sanctions that have blighted the Iranian economy.

As all sides haggle over the final details ahead of next Tuesday’s deadline, an agreement suddenly looks uncertain. Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, appeared to pull back this week, demanding that most international sanctions be lifted before Tehran dismantles parts of its nuclear infrastructure. He has also repeated his refusal to allow international inspections of Iranian military sites. In response, a group of former close security advisers to President Barack Obama has warned him that he must not make further concessions.

At this late stage, both sides need to keep their eyes on the prize. For Mr Obama, a deal would mark his biggest foreign policy success, potentially ending nearly four decades of estranged relations between both nations. For the Iranian people, it would mark the beginning of the end of an international sanctions regime that has scarred their daily lives. But whatever the political upside, a deal needs to be technically robust. It will only deserve to endure if it truly stops Iran moving towards a bomb for at least another decade. There are areas where the US can show flexibility. John Kerry, US secretary of state, is right to suggest, for example, that a final deal need not require Iran to account for all its nuclear weapons research since 2003. The focus of attention should be on what Iran does in the future, not what it did in the past.

Read the editorial in full the FT.