Implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement is set for next month. And a Russian diplomat announced Monday that Iran has taken one step closer to meeting the requirements of the deal that will curtail its nuclear industry for more than a decade in exchange for lifting sanctions. Iran has sent more than eight-and-a-half tons of low-enriched uranium to Russia in exchange for 140 tons of uranium ore, according to the unnamed diplomat in Moscow. While that’s another encouraging sign that implementation of the agreement is on schedule, there’s continuing opposition, both among hard-liners in Iran and the United States.
Many members of Congress want to impose new sanctions over Iran’s recent pair of tests of ballistic missiles—a violation of U.N. sanctions on the missile program—and otherwise make clear to leaders in Tehran that the United States may back off the nuclear agreement once President Obama leaves the White House. Here’s the AP’s George Jahn:
As part of the July 14 deal, Iran must ship out all except 300 kilograms (over 660 pounds) of the close to nine tons of low-enriched uranium it has stockpiled. Low-enriched uranium is suited to power generation but can be further enriched to arm nuclear warheads. [...]
The exchange is only one part of the arrangements focused on Iran's enriched uranium supply, however. The country also has more than 200 kilograms (almost 450 pounds) of uranium enriched near 20 percent, which is much higher than the low-enriched stockpile it committed to ship to Russia and only a technical step away from weapons-grade material.
Before implementation of the deal, which would end sanctions, Iran’s uranium that is enriched almost to 20 percent must also be shipped out of the country, diluted to low-enrichment levels or turned into reactor fuel plates. There’s been no hints that Iran isn’t planning to do all this. But opponents of the deal plan to keep trying to squelch it:
Republican lawmakers, along with some Democrats, are expected to press legislative efforts to punish Iran for a range of alleged misbehavior, including its recent testing of ballistic missiles. Proposed legislation tackles everything from the finances of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to the right of U.S. states to level their own sanctions on Iran. Lawmakers also are likely to try to renew the Iran Sanctions Act, which expires at the end of 2016, early in the year.
If implementation comes off as planned, it will bolster President Obama’s stance that diplomacy even with a long-time adversary is worth the effort. If it goes awry, it will wreck a key element of the president’s legacy.
Most of the congressional attempts to upend things are unlikely to gain passage in either or both houses, and even those that did would no doubt collide with the president’s veto. But the incessant opposition is injecting shakiness into the agreement, and will do so all the more during an election year.