The United States along with other key world powers have reached a framework agreement with Iran over it's nuclear program. With President Obama calling it a “historic understanding” that could make the world safer and Iranians celebrating in the streets, opposition exists from Israel, Arab nations and many skeptical individuals in Congress. A key element in the deal is Iran's acceptance of 10 years of restrictions on nuclear capability in trade for lifting of sanctions.
BACKGROUND Via the NY Times:
Under the Terms, Iran...
• Is allowed to keep its nuclear facilities, which it insists are for civilian uses only, but they would be subject to strict production limits. Two facilities will be converted into research sites without fissile material.
• Cuts the number of its centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, by two-thirds to 5,060, and reduces its stockpile of low-enriched uranium from 10,000 kilograms to 300 kilograms — not enough for a nuclear weapon — for 15 years. Thousands of centrifuges will be put into storage.
• Agrees to redesign a heavy-water reactor at Arak in a way that would keep it from producing plutonium, a weapons-usable fuel.
• Gets relief from a range of international sanctions that have sharply reduced its sale of oil and impeded access to the international financial system.
Negotiations over research and development of more advanced centrifuges were particularly difficult. The Iranians won the right to research, but not to use more modern machines for production for the next 10 years.
Some Delicate Issues Remain
• The timing of sanctions relief. Iran wants all sanctions removed quickly. The United States says sanctions would be removed in stages after Iran shows compliance with the terms of a final nuclear agreement.
• The Americans want all nuclear facilities “anywhere in the country,” including military bases, to be subject to inspections that could “investigate suspicious sites or allegations of a covert enrichment facility.”
• The process for ensuring Iran remains in compliance with the terms of the agreement and the process for reimposing sanctions if its is found to fall out of compliance.
• The details of how Iran’s existing stockpile of nuclear fuel would be diluted, neutralized or removed from the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/world/middleeast/the-iran-nuclear-deal-what-you-need-to-know.html?ref=middleeast