UN Security Council to vote on Iran nuke deal next week

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council will vote next week on a resolution endorsing the nuclear deal with Iran, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, according to BBC News.

On his return to Tehran, Zarif told reporters that the council would, for the first time, recognize a developing country's uranium enrichment program. The deal, reached with six world powers in Vienna, would begin to be implemented by November, he added.

In return for an end to sanctions, Iran will limit its nuclear activities.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement proved that "constructive engagement works", while his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama called it a step towards a "more hopeful world".

Obama also sought to reassure Americans and allies in the Middle East, who fear the accord will embolden Iran and fail to stop it gaining nuclear weapons.

"We began the talks in a situation when the Security Council had termed the peaceful nuclear program of Islamic Republic of Iran as a matter of concern through its oppressive resolutions," Zarif told a news conference at Tehran's Mehrabad airport on Wednesday, July 15.

"Today, these talks have concluded in a situation when the Security Council - for the first time in its history - will give official recognition to a developing country's enrichment program through a resolution next week."

The Security Council passed six resolutions between 2006 and 2010 requiring Iran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used for civilian purposes, but also to build nuclear bombs.

Diplomats told the Reuters that the U.S. would circulate a draft text on Wednesday that would terminate the previous resolutions but enshrine a mechanism for the sanctions they included to automatically "snap back" if Iran breached its commitments.

The five permanent members of the Security Council who could veto any resolution - the U.S., UK, France, Russia and China - were part of the so-called P5+1 group of world powers that signed the deal with Iran, along with Germany.

"We hope that more or less within four months measures taken by both sides show results and implementation of the deal begins," Zarif said.

President Rouhani meanwhile told a cabinet meeting that Iran had not "surrendered". "The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran. It's an achievement that Iran won't be called a world threat anymore," he added.