UN endorses Iran nuclear agreement

 

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that will clear a path for international sanctions crippling Iran’s economy to be lifted.

Representatives of all 15 countries on the Security Council voted on Monday by raising their hands.

“The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously,” Murray McCully, foreign minister of New Zealand, which holds the current presidency of the Security Council, announced after the vote.

But the measure also provides a mechanism for UN sanctions to “snap back” in place if Iran fails to meet its obligations.

The passing of the resolution marks formal UN endorsement for the agreement reached between Iran and the so-called P5 1 group after 18 straight days of talks that capped almost two years of negotiations.

The agreement with Iran was reached last Tuesday in Vienna, Austria, by the Security Council’s five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany.

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The document specifies that seven resolutions related to UN sanctions will be terminated when Iran has completed a series of major steps to curb its nuclear programme and the International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded that “all nuclear material in Iran remains in peaceful activities.”