Iran’s nuclear programme
A Backbench Business Committee debate on Iran's nuclear programme is scheduled for Thursday 30 June 2022 in the House of Commons chamber.

On the 24th of November, the world woke up to news that a deal had been reached between the Permanent Five plus One (the UK, US, France, China, Russia and Germany) and Iran. A Joint Plan of Action was the outcome of weeks of hard negotiations. The deal was indeed revealed to be the fruit of years of US-Iran secret negotiations alongside a decade of public Iranian diplomacy following the revelation of a wide scale Iranian enrichment programme. This note seeks to outline the terms of the deal and reactions to it, background information for context and give a sense of potential technical and geopolitical outcomes.
The Deal with Iran (152 KB , PDF)
• The deal as it stands brings in enhanced monitoring of Iran’s nuclear capability and rolls back elements of Iran’s enrichment programme resulting in a delaying and close supervision of any possible ‘breakout’ period in which Iran could race to a bomb. In return Iran gains a partial lifting of international sanctions.
• Debates over the Joint Plan of Action’s specifics have stressed the importance of intrusive inspections and fears over hidden elements to the Iranian programme.
• The Joint Action Plan also suggests potential points that would be dealt with in a comprehensive solution which, once fully implemented would see Iran rehabilitated as a normalised signatory of the Non-Proliferation treaty with a civil nuclear programme, though whether enrichment would be included remains a moot point.
• A variety of reactions have been noted from various states and commentators. The majority of reaction has been favourable.
• The deal signals important geopolitical shifts in the region that would benefit Iran and potentially lessen the importance of traditional allies in the Middle East: Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Deal with Iran (152 KB , PDF)
A Backbench Business Committee debate on Iran's nuclear programme is scheduled for Thursday 30 June 2022 in the House of Commons chamber.
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