Advocates of disarmament and reconciliation with Iran embraced the framework agreement announced Thursday that would limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities, while the Israeli government and its supporters voiced deep criticism and mistrust.
The Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan group in Washington, called the framework agreement a “historic breakthrough” and said that if it was fully carried out, the agreement would block Iran’s pathway to a bomb. The group said the agreement “promises to lead to one of the most consequential and far-reaching nuclear nonproliferation achievements in recent decades.”
The National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group in Washington, said that if the framework agreement led to a final agreement by June 30, as negotiators hope and expect, it would have “secured through diplomacy what neither war nor sanctions could ever have accomplished.”
The agreement was reached in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Iran and the group of powers known as the P5-plus-1 — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. It contained what disarmament experts said were surprisingly specific provisions.
Iran agreed to reduce by roughly two-thirds the number of installed centrifuges it has for enriching uranium fuel, and to take other steps to limit its uranium enrichment. It agreed to dismantle and rebuild a reactor so that it would not produce plutonium fuel, and to allow extensive inspections to assure the world of its peaceful intent. In exchange, the powers would lift the array of sanctions that have been imposed on Iran for years.
In Israel, which considers Iran its most dangerous enemy, the official reaction to the framework agreement was, not unexpectedly, harsh and mistrustful.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been an outspoken critic of the nuclear negotiations, did not comment immediately. But his economics minister, Naftali Bennett, likened the framework agreement to negotiations with Hitler and the Nazis before World War II that some leaders in Europe mistakenly believed would forestall war.
“‘Peace in our time,’ 2015,” Mr. Bennett said in a statement. “The world’s most radical Islamic terror regime received today an official kosher stamp for its illicit nuclear program. This is a regime that cannot be trusted, and which has already violated consecutive U.N. resolutions. Today’s deal paves the way for Iran to eventually obtain a nuclear weapon, to further destabilize the Middle East and to continue spreading terror across the globe.”
The World Jewish Congress, an umbrella organization of Jewish communities in 100 countries, was less critical, but still highly skeptical. Its president, Ronald S. Lauder, said in a statement that “the key question was if Iran could be trusted to implement the deal.”
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