Overview of the Iran - EU Agreement

The Middle East Media Research Institute has just published a very long piece discussing Iran's agreement with the EU over nuclear technology. The piece is excellent and features no less than 47 different links to supporting documents. Among the highlights are that Iran has been guaranteed by the EU not to have its case refered to the Security Council. This has been reported on already, but is important to remember. In exchange, the Iranians agreed to

a "voluntary, non-legally-binding, confidence-building measure," the duration of which, according to the Paris Agreement would depend on two conditions: a) negotiations with the E.U. over a long-term arrangement regarding Iran's nuclear activity; and b) No IAEA resolution taken against Iran.

Surely we are not the only nes who think the Iranians made out like bandits on this deal? Another interesting bit is that

Iran's position throughout the negotiations was that in principle it had the right to engage in nuclear activity and to enrich uranium because of its membership in the NPT – and that it would never relinquish this right.

This does not bode well for the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran has now effectively used its status as a signatory to blunt diplomacy aimed at preventing Iran from doing what it signed on not to; yet another case of a post-Cold War twist in the former global order of things . . .