Why JCPOA is more than just a deal between Iran and P5+1?
July 14 2016 is the first anniversary of The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) known commonly as the Iran deal.
JCPOA is an unprecedented event in both the 70-year history of the UN and the 50-year history of the Non‑Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons treaty (NPT).
This is the first time in the history of the Security Council that a sanctions regime has achieved the desired result. The Council adopted 6 resolutions under Chapter VII, which imitated four rounds of economic, military and oil sanctions. The mandatory resolutions have been helpful in assuring meaningful negations between the between Iran and the P5+1 group of states.
This combination of UNSC mandatory resolutions and active diplomacy has been able to achieve the main policy objectives of both the UN and the Iranian government.
Another unique and unprecedented aspect of this deal is the fact that the 5 permanent members of the security council (nuclear weapons states) not only acknowledged the right of another country to have access to ”nuclear energy” under chapter IV of NPT, but also passed that as an international agreement through the Security Council who earlier on had imposed sanctions on Iran for pursuing access to nuclear energy by calling the country a threat to international security. (According to NPT all states can have access to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes however there have been several agreements about limitations of nuclear weapons)
These two are both significant legal achievements in the history of multilateralism and the UN.
To elaborate on the importance of the Iran’s nuclear deal it is worth mentioning that historically there were many other countries that did pursue their right according to NPT to get access to nuclear energy but the Security Council members never acknowledged the legitimate rights of those countries and only in some cases they only had to accept the fact
NPT, which has been the core of Iran’s political and legal challenges with the world powers, was the result of an agreement between two groups of governments in 1967. The treaty divided the governments in the world into two groups of those who own nuclear weapons those who do not.
Governments who did not posses nuclear weapons agreed not to pursue that ambition (non-proliferation) and in returns the other group committed to help the first group acquire the knowledge and its benefits (the right to peacefully use technology) as a legitimate right. The third condition of the treaty is for the governments with nuclear weapons to hold proactive negotiations in good will with the objective of nuclear ”disarmament”.
Over the past 5 decades members of the Security Council have never given the 3 pillars of the treaty equal importance. In other words, members of the Security Council, led by the US, interpret the treaty by giving the ”non-proliferation” pillar the highest priority over the other two, peaceful use of technology and disarmament.
In his book “interpreting the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty”, Daniel Joyner (Oxford University Press) international law lecturer at Alabama University writes that the five members of the Security Council (P5) have been trying to categorise their activities with regards to proliferation (Iran’s case for example) as ”disarmament” activities which should be an attempt to reduce their own arsenal.
He believes that according to article 60 of the 1969 Vienna convention, these governments have been violating NPT over the past 50 years and based on that other members (such as Iran) can suspend their own commitments to the treaty.
According to the reports from IAEA, Iran failed to fully comply with IAEA and NPT regulations in setting up and development of its nuclear program but IAEA reports of the past 13 years do not show a single evidence of Iran deviating towards development of nuclear weapons.
In spite of all that and because of insisting on its own rights according to article VI of NPT, Iran has been under utmost international pressures and severe sanctions by the US, Europe and the UN to stop Iran from pursuing its nuclear fuel cycle ambitions.
According to IAEA director general of the time, Mohammed ElBaradei and in his book “The Age of Deception”, Bush administration would not even agree to Iran having access to a small cycle consisting of 164 centrifuges.
Even though Daniel Jones believes the way NPT has been implemented is a violation of members’ rights (Iran’s case over the past 13 years for instance) and that he argues that members under such circumstances and according to the treaty itself have the right to leave the treaty, in a strategic decision Iran did not make 2 moves: first, Iran never left the treaty even under severe conditions and with its rights neglected (and decided to cooperate even more in some instances). Second, insisting on its legitimate rights according to NPT, it never stopped the pursuit of nuclear fuel cycle and uranium enrichment.
If we consider NPT the outcome of the cost Japan as the biggest victim of nuclear weapons paid, then the 13-year challenge between Iran and the Security Council would be the outcome of near the 50-year battle over the objective, interpretation and implementation of NPT, at Iran’s cost.
It is true that among 190 members of NPT it was only Iran who paid the price, nevertheless it founded a new civilised international method (to resolve a dispute through diplomacy and negotiations with the security council rather than a war, in line with the philosophy of the UN) and a new approach in international law (official recognition of NPT members’ rights to have access to nuclear fuel cycle).
Therefore, JCPOA is not just an deal between Iran and P5+1 but it is a historic reconciliation in international law and relationships, which will be cited by many other governments in the future.
After the first Security Council resolution against Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian representative at the UN of the time in the council called that day, 23rd December 2006, ‘a sad day’ for NPT due to their neglecting of Israeli nuclear threats a few days earlier but condemning Iran because of insisting on its legitimate rights.
After 9 years since that speech, UN SC lifts all sanctions conditionally.
14 July 2015 (JCPOA) and 20th July 2015 (UNSCR 2231) should be considered a landmark in the history of the NPT and international cooperation.
