Tempus
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Tidskriften
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August 2002 Exiled Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, release details of the location of a heavy-water production facility at Arak and a nuclear fuel production facility being built at Natanz, prompting international fears that Iran is on track to develop nuclear weapons.
February 2003 As the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces looms, President Khatami acknowledges the existence of the Natanz facility. He claims Natanz was only intended to produce low-enriched uranium fuel for nuclear power plants. Iran agrees to a request from UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to visit the Natanz site. IAEA visits in late February and Iran promises to submit to inspections.
May 2003 Iran allows IAEA to visit the Kalaye Electric Company but refuses to allow IAEA inspectors to take samples.
June 2003 IAEA report concludes that Iran has failed to meet its obligations under the safeguards agreement.
June 2003 Following the IAEA report, the UK, Germany and France (the EU-3) launch a joint diplomatic effort to address Iran’s nuclear policy. The US refused to be involved in the talks.
October 2003 Under threat of referral to the UN security council, Iran reaches an agreement with the EU-3, known as the Tehran Declaration. Iran agrees to cooperate fully with the IAEA and suspend all uranium enrichment.
August 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected president of Iran. He is seen as supportive of the country’s nuclear programme.
August-September 2005 EU-3 deal begins to fall apart as Iran resumes the conversion of uranium at the Isfahan facility. Ahmadinejad gives a speech at the United Nations stating that Iran has the right to develop a nuclear power programme.
February 2006 The IAEA votes to report Iran to the UN security council. After the vote, Iran announces it will resume enrichment of uranium.
April 2006 Ahmadinejad announces Iran has joined the group of countries that have nuclear technology, but adds that this is purely for providing power, not producing weapons.
June
2006: China, the US and Russia join the UK, Germany and France
to form the P5+1. The term refers to the five permanent member
July 2006 The UN security council passes its first resolution
demanding Iran stop its uranium enrichment and processing activities.
2006-2010 The security council adopts a total of six resolutions and imposes gradual sanctions on Iran, including freezing assets of individuals and companies related to the enrichment programme and banning the supply of nuclear-related technology to the country.
September 2009 The US president, Barack Obama, reveals the existence of an underground enrichment facility in Fordow, near the Iranian city of Qom. The US begins talking seriously about air strikes against Iran, and Israel threatens to take nuclear action.
March 2013 The US begins a series of secret talks with Iranian officials, which are kept from its partners in the P5+1.
June 2013 Hassan Rouhani is elected president of Iran. He is considered more moderate, pragmatic and willing to negotiate than Ahmadinejad.
September 2013 Obama telephones Rouhani, the first contact between leaders of the US and Iran since 1979. The phone call, as well as a meeting between the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, a day earlier, is seen as the beginning of a new era of cooperation between the countries.
November 2013 Iran and the P5+1 reach an interim agreement, known as the joint plan of action. The agreement limits Iran’s nuclear programme. Production at the Arak heavy-water reactor ceases and Iran depletes much of its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium. Sanctions against Iran are partially lifted and assets are unfrozen.
July 2014 Deadline for a comprehensive agreement to be reached between Iran and the P5+1. The deadline is not met and is extended to November 2014.
November 2014 Deadline is not met, and is extended to the end of June 2015, with the target of reaching a framework understanding by the end of March.
March 2015 World leaders meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, to finalise agreement.
2 April 2015 Iran and world powers announce framework deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief and commit to finalising a comprehensive deal by the end of June. Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, describes the deal as a “decisive step”. Iranians celebrate in the streets at the prospect of a deal and the lifting of sanctions.
June 2015 Talks resume between the P5+1 and Iran in Vienna ahead of 30 June deadline.
30 June 2015 No deal is struck as the deadline looms. Diplomats suggest that the real deadline is 9 July, the latest the deal can go to US Congress if sanctions are to be lifted as quickly as Iran would hope. Obama warns that he will walk away from a deal if Tehran does not stick to the outline agreed in April.
6 July 2015 Kerry says negotiations “could go either way”, 48 hours before the deadline for an agreement, as foreign ministers from the P5+1 meet again in Vienna.
8 July 2015 Talks are extended by three days amid disagreements over the lifting of an arms embargo, but western diplomats say they remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached by the end of the week.
10 July 2015 A senior member of the Iranian delegation criticises the P5+1, accusing them of putting forward multiple agreements and dragging their feet on a deal, after Kerry says there is “no rush” to conclude negotiations.
11 July 2015 The deadline to reach agreement is pushed back to Monday 13 July, the third extension in two weeks.
12 July 2015 President Rouhani says Iran has “managed to amaze the world” in the talks.
13 July 2015 The Iranian president’s office is forced to delete a premature tweet in his name that appears to welcome a nuclear agreement which has yet to materialise. Zarif tells journalists he is feeling “sleepy and overworked” as the new deadline is missed, but talks continue late into the night.
14
July 2015 After 17 days of almost uninterrupted negotiations,
a historic deal is reached in Vienna. It brings to an end a 12-year
stand-off and potentially marks the beginning of a new era in
relations between Iran and the west. Attention turns to the US,
where Barack Obama has promised to veto any attempt by Republican
opponents to undermine the deal.
