US-Iran Deal to Dismantle Nuclear Program, Ensure Long-Term Peace: White House

US-Iran deal will guarantee long-term peace in region, dismantle Iran's nuclear programme: White House official

By Reena Bhardwaj, Washington, DC, June 13

The official said the deal would "reopen the straits and lift the blockade", while also leading to the dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme and transfer of enriched material out of the country.

"What the deal does is actually quite simple. It accomplishes the core objectives that the President of the United States set out for this mission, and gets us in a very, very good place at the end of it. And what it does is, first, it reopens the straits and lifts the blockade. Number two, it leads to the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program. Number three, it leads to the United States getting the enriched material. We provided the agreement that this material would be destroyed on site and then taken out of the country," White House official added.

"It guarantees a long-term peace in the region, and that would mean, of course, that the Iranians are no longer funding violence in the region, but it would also mean that everyone is respecting the territorial sovereignty of Iran, and then finally it has an inspection regime that makes sure that this is a long-term commitment and that it's a long-term enforceable, so that's what really the United States gets out of the agreement," the official added.

Addressing concerns over Iranian domestic messaging, the official warned against relying on state-affiliated media. "Iranian hardliners...want to message it to their internal audiences in a way that maximises their upside and minimises our upside," the official said, adding that the US expected "domestic propaganda" from Tehran but urged caution in interpreting such narratives.

The official also said negotiations were progressing toward a signing within days, estimating an 80-85 per cent likelihood of conclusion, though noting the process was still not final.

"They're trying to sell the deal to their internal population. We expected that would happen, but there're also going to be a lot of inaccuracies built into that propaganda. The second thing is, we do expect to be signing this agreement over the next few days. I can't give you an exact date, and if I were to give you a confidence that we were going to be signing this agreement, I maybe would have said 75% this morning. It's probably more like 80, 85 per cent now, but it's not 100 per cent. Their system is very complicated," the senior official said.

Rejecting reports of upfront financial gains for Iran, the official refuted claims that Tehran would receive payments upon signing the memorandum of understanding.

The official added that while most Iranian stakeholders appeared supportive of the agreement, internal divisions were still being resolved before a final decision is made.

"Most of the people that we've been speaking to, and most of the people who have authority within their system, want to sign this deal, but not everybody, and those internal fractures are sort of working themselves out as they continue to try to get to a point where they can say yes to the deal, and then the final thing is anything that the Iranians get as part of this agreement," he added.

"I've seen people say that they get USD 12 billion or USD 1 billion or USD 6 billion upon the signing of the MoU. That's all not true, that the Iranians don't get anything upon the signing of the MoU or upon the negotiation itself. What they get is that they get rewarded economically for complying with their obligations under the deal, so if they turn over the nuclear material as promised, they'll get something. If they dismantle their nuclear programs or their nuclear facilities, they'll get something else. If they, you know, really commit to regional peace and stability, they'll get additional things on top of that," an official added.

— ANI