IRAN: Nuclear Deal has Prevented a New War in Mid. East

[Oscar]

WATCH: Historic Nuclear Deal has Prevented a New War in the Middle East

[ http://www.democracynow.org/2015/4/3/fo ... clear_dear ]

Friday, April 3, 2015

After eight days of talks in Switzerland, Iran and world powers have reached a framework agreement on curbing Iran’s nuclear program for at least a decade.

In return, the United States and Europe plan to lift economic sanctions on Iran.

As part of the deal, Iran must reduce the number of its centrifuges that can be used to enrich uranium into a bomb by more than two-thirds. Iran also has to redesign a power plant so it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium, eliminate much of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium and be subject to regular international nuclear inspections.

While U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the deal would contribute to peace and stability in the region, praise for the deal was not universal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the agreement as a "threat to Israel’s existence."

We speak to Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former nuclear negotiator for Iran. He served as Iran’s ambassador to Germany from 1990 to 1997. He joins us from Princeton, New Jersey, where he is an associate research scholar at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Last year, he published the book, "Iran and the United States: An Insider’s View on the Failed Past and the Road to Peace." [ . . . ]