Everything you need to know about the Iran nuclear deal

(CNN) – The escalation of tensions between Iran and the world’s major powers over nuclear issues seems to have no end.

On Wednesday, Tehran agreed to return to the table for talks to discuss the resumption of talks within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015 but strongly weakened after the United States left in 2018.

But what is the JCPOA and what are the tensions around it?

Here’s a look at the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the P5 + 1 group.

Key facts

Agreement: Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA)

Signatories: Iran and the P5 + 1 group (United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany, together with the European Union)

Firm: Jul 2015

Implementation: Jan 2016

Iran’s main commitments:

-Reduction for 10 years of number of your centrifuges (used to enrich uranium) from more than 19,000 to 6,104 first generation.

-Reduction for 10 years of the stock of slightly enriched uranium (used in nuclear power plants) to 300 kilos, and of the highly enriched (used in weapons) to 0.

-Unrestricted regime of IAEA inspections and increase of inspectors to a range of between 130 and 150.

Main commitments of the P5 + 1 group

-Reciprocal and step-by-step lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions, as well as multilateral sanctions, including those imposed by the European Union, and national ones related to Iran’s nuclear program.

Background

1957 – USA start cooperating on nuclear matters with Iran.

1967 – Iran inaugurates its first nuclear research reactor in Tehran, with American technology. Shortly after signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

1975 – Construction begins on the Busherh nuclear power plant, with German technology.

1979 – Islamic Revolution overthrows Shah of Persi and ends West-Iran nuclear cooperation

1984 – Iran opens a nuclear research center with help from China.

1998 – The United States warns that Iran could be developing nuclear weapons.

2000 – The President of the United States, Bill Clinton, implements sanctions against Iran.

2003 – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) detects traces of enriched uranium, used both in power plants and in nuclear weapons, during an inspection in Natanz. Iran claims the material is contamination in imported equipment, but suspends its enrichment work.

2004 – The IAEA finds traces of uranium enriched to a level only used in nuclear weapons. Iran insists on contamination.

2005 – Iran resumes uranium enrichment.

2006 – The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, orders to cease cooperation with IAEA. The UN Security Council imposes sanctions.

2007 – The UN Security Council toughens its sanctions.

2009 – The Institute for Science and International Security informs that Iranian scientists have reached “nuclear weapons capacity”. The report concludes that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon, but it does have enough low-enriched uranium for a single nuclear weapon.

2010 – The IAEA reports that Iran may be secretly working to develop a warhead for a missile.

2011 – The Busherh nuclear power plant, started in 1975, comes into operation. The IAEA publishes a report saying it has “serious concerns” and “credible” information that Iran may be developing nuclear weapons.

2012 – A six-member IAEA delegation arrives in Tehran for a three-day visit, shortly after the EU imposes new sanctions aimed at cutting funding for the nuclear program.

2013 – During a speech at the UN General Assembly, Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani says: “Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran’s security and defense doctrine, and they contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions. “

Six world powers and Iran reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. The agreement calls on Iran to limit your nuclear activities in exchange for lighter penalties.

2014 – Iran’s nuclear spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, tells the state news agency IRNA that Iran has begun to suspend high levels of uranium enrichment. The European Union announces that it has suspended certain sanctions against Iran for six months.

2015 – An agreement is reached on Iran’s nuclear program. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reduces the number of Iranian centrifuges by two-thirds. It bans enrichment at key facilities and limits uranium research and development to the Natanz facility. In return, sanctions against Iran will be lifted.

2016 – IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano states that Iran has completed all the necessary steps agreed to under the nuclear deal and that all participants can start implementing the JCPOA.

2017 – United States President Donald Trump decertifies compliance with the nuclear agreement by Iran, declaring that the Obama-era pact does not serve the interests of the United States and presents a tough new policy toward the Islamic Republic. The measure does not completely discard the agreement, but rather refers it to Congress, which has 60 days to determine the way forward. Congress lets the 60-day period pass without acting.

2018 – Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the JCPOA and impose “the highest level of economic sanction” against Iran. In Tehran, Rouhani says Iran will take a few weeks to decide how to respond to the US decision, but Rouhani says it had directed the country’s “atomic industry organization” to be prepared to “begin our industrial enrichment without limitations. . “

2019 – The US Departments of State and Treasury. they sanction to 14 individuals and 17 entities from Iran. Consequently, Iran announces its partial departure from the JCPOA, still without discarding it, and uranium enrichment resumes and the modernization of centrifuges.

2020 – The IAEA confirms that Iran’s enriched uranium stocks exceed the limit established by the JCPOA. According to Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, dies in an apparent murder.

2021 – Iran announces that it is enriching uranium to the levels necessary for a nuclear weapon.

Joe Biden’s government announces that the US is willing to sit down and talk with Tehran and the other signatories of the Iranian nuclear agreement and get both of them to comply with the JCPOA again. Iran says in response it will allow IAEA inspectors to maintain nuclear surveillance equipment in the country, according to a joint statement from Iranian and IAEA officials.

Iran agrees to restart nuclear talks with major powers “before the end of November,” said chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani in a tweet.