{"id":91732,"date":"2018-05-09T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T11:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=8d379b922ce3d5d4716eea6b62ceaed3"},"modified":"2018-05-09T11:59:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T11:59:00","slug":"speech-foreign-secretary-statement-on-the-iran-nuclear-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=91732","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Foreign Secretary’s statement on the Iran nuclear deal, 9 May 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The government regrets the decision of the US Administration to withdraw from the deal and to re-impose American sanctions on Iran.<\/p>\n

We did our utmost to prevent this outcome; from the moment that President Trump\u2019s Administration took office, we made the case for keeping the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA<\/abbr>) at every level.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday I travelled to Washington<\/a> and repeated this country\u2019s support for the nuclear agreement in meetings with Secretary Pompeo, Vice-President Pence, National Security Adviser Bolton and others and my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister spoke to President Trump last Saturday.<\/p>\n

The US decision makes no difference to the British assessment that the constraints imposed on Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions by the JCPoA<\/abbr> remain vital for our national security and the stability of the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Iran has relinquished 95% of its low-enriched uranium, placed 2 thirds of its centrifuges in storage, removed the core of its heavy water reactor \u2013 thus closing off the plutonium route to a bomb, and allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA<\/abbr>) to mount the most intrusive and rigorous inspection regime ever devised, an obligation on Iran that lasts until 2040.<\/p>\n

The House should not underestimate the impact of these measures.<\/p>\n

The interval needed for Iran to make enough weapons-grade uranium for 1 nuclear bomb is known as the \u201cbreakout\u201d time.<\/p>\n

Under the deal, Iran\u2019s \u201cbreakout\u201d time has trebled or even quadrupled from a few months to at least a year,and the plutonium pathway to a weapon has been blocked completely.<\/p>\n

For as long as Iran abides by the agreement \u2013 and the IAEA<\/abbr> has publicly reported its compliance, Iran\u2019s compliance, 9 times so far \u2013 then Britain will remain a party to the JCPoA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

I remind the House that the JCPoA<\/abbr> is an international agreement, painstakingly negotiated over 13 years \u2013 under both Republican and Democratic Administrations \u2013 and enshrined in UN Resolution 2231<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Britain has no intention of walking away; instead we will cooperate with the other parties to ensure that while Iran continues to restrict its nuclear programme, then its people will benefit from sanctions relief in accordance with the central bargain of the deal.<\/p>\n

I cannot yet go into detail on the steps we propose to take, but I hope to make them available as soon as possible and I spoke yesterday to my French and German counterparts.<\/p>\n

In his statement on January 12, President Trump highlighted important limitations of the JCPoA<\/abbr>, including the fact that some constraints on Iran\u2019s nuclear capacity expire in 2025.<\/p>\n

Britain worked alongside France and Germany to find a way forward that would have addressed the President\u2019s concerns and allowed the US to stay in the JCPoA<\/abbr>, but without reopening the terms of the agreement.<\/p>\n

I still believe that would have been the better course and now that our efforts on this side of the Atlantic have not succeeded, it falls to the US Administration to spell out their view of the way ahead.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, I urge the US to avoid taking any action that would hinder other parties from continuing to make the agreement work in the interests of our collective national security.<\/p>\n

I urge Iran to respond to the US decision with restraint and continue to observe its commitments under the JCPoA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

We have always been at one with the United States in our profound concern over Iran\u2019s missile tests and Iran\u2019s disruptive role in the Middle East, particularly in Yemen and Syria.<\/p>\n

The UK has acted to counter Iran\u2019s destabilising behaviour in the region \u2013 and we will continue to do so.<\/p>\n

We remain adamant that a nuclear-armed Iran would never be acceptable to the United Kingdom; indeed Iran\u2019s obligation not to \u201cseek, develop or acquire\u201d nuclear weapons appears \u2013 without any time limit \u2013 on the first page of the preamble to the JCPoA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

Yesterday President Trump promised to \u201cwork with our allies to find a real, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Iranian nuclear threat\u201d.<\/p>\n

I have no difficulty whatever with that goal: the question is how the US proposes to achieve it?<\/p>\n

Now that the Trump Administration has left the JCPoA<\/abbr>, the responsibility falls on them to describe how they in Washington will build a new negotiated solution to our shared concerns, a settlement that must necessarily include Iran, China and Russia as well as countries in the region.<\/p>\n

Britain stands ready to support that task, but in the meantime, we will strive to preserve the gains made by the JCPoA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n

And I commend this statement to the House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson gave a statement to the House of Commons on the Iran nuclear deal, following the decision of the US to withdraw from the deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91732"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91746,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91732\/revisions\/91746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}