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Full transcript: the international statement on the Iranian nuclear deal

The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, center, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, right.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, center, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, right.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, center, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, right.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

International negotiators have finally reached an outline agreement for a deal that will see Iran limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, after eight days of hugely complicated talks in Switzerland. Negotiators have set themselves a June 30 deadline to work out the full details of the deal.

Here’s the full text of the statement on the deal, read by the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, at a press conference in Lausanne on Thursday afternoon alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

I’m going now to read a joint statement that we have agreed on with Foreign Minister Zarif and all the others that have been negotiating so hard in these days.

We, the European Union High Representative and the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, together with the Foreign Ministers of the E3 + 3, China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States, met from 26 March to 2 April 2015 in Switzerland, as agreed in November 2013, to gather here to find solutions towards reaching a comprehensive solution that will ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program and the comprehensive lifting of all sanctions.

Today we have taken a decisive step. We have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action. The political determination, the goodwill and the hard work of all parties made it possible and let us thank all delegations for their tireless dedication.

This is a crucial declaration laying the agreed basis for the final text of the joint comprehensive plan of action. We can now restart drafting the text and annexes of the joint comprehensive plan of action, guided by the solutions developed in these days.

As Iran pursues a peaceful nuclear program, Iran’s enrichment capacity, enrichment level and stockpile will be limited for specific durations and there will be no other enrichment facility than Natanz.

Iran’s research and development on centrifuges will be carried out on a scope and schedule that has been mutually agreed. Fordow will be converted from an enrichment site into a nuclear physics and technology center. International collaboration will be encouraged in agreed areas of research. There will not be any fissile material at Fordow.

An international joint venture will assist Iran in redesigning and rebuilding a modernized heavy water research reactor in Arak that will not produce weapons-grade plutonium. There will be no reprocessing, and spent fuel will be exported. A set of measures have been agreed to monitor the provisions of the JCPOA including implementation of the modified code 3.1 and provision of the additional protocol.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will be permitted the use of modern technologies and will have announced access through agreed procedures including to clarify past and present issues. Iran will take part in international cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy which can include supply of power and research reactors. Another important area of cooperation will be in the field of nuclear safety and security.

The European Union will terminate the implementation of all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions and the United States will cease the application of all nuclear-related secondary economic and financial sanctions simultaneously with the IAEA-verified implementation by Iran of its key nuclear commitments.

A new UN Security Council resolution will endorse the JCPOA, terminate all previous nuclear-related resolutions, and incorporate certain restrictive measures for a mutually agreed period of time. We will now work to write the text of a joint comprehensive plan of action including its technical details in the coming weeks and months at the political and experts level. We are committed to complete our efforts by June 30.

We would like to thank the Swiss government for its generous support in hosting these negotiations, and let me personally and on behalf of everybody also thank you all, journalists and media from around the world, for having followed our work and somehow also worked with us over this difficult but intense and positive week.

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