Implementation of the Interim Deal: New Realities in Advance of Renewed Negotiations

INSS

BY EMILY B. LANDAU AND EPHRAIM ASCULAI

On January 20, 2014, IAEA inspectors visited Natanz and Fordow to verify that Iran began implementing the interim deal with the P5+1 – two months after the deal was first announced in late November 2013 – by halting its enrichment of uranium at these facilities to 20 percent. The last two months were spent rehashing the terms of what had ostensibly already been decided in late November in Geneva, although the different versions of the agreement that were released by Washington and Tehran at the time immediately revealed that the two states were not on the same page, which did not bode well for the continued process. The dispute over the correct interpretation of what was decided is still far from over, as evidenced by Iranian accusations days before implementation began that the “Summary” of the understandings released by the White House was “a unilateral and one-sided interpretation” of what had been agreed. It is also unclear why the White House chose to release only a summary, rather than the full text of the new understandings.

Link to the article