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Iran Nuke Deal. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 02, 2015 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: At the same time, all Security Council resolutions will be terminated. All U.S. nuclear-related secondary sanctions as well as E.U. sanctions will be terminated -- while the term of art for each case may be terminate implementation or cease implementation or terminate application, whatever the word may be, so that people will not get into trouble with the legal institutions. But the effect of which will be, when we implement our measures, there won't be no sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

[14:00:24] And that, I think, would be a major step forward. We have stopped a cycle that was not in the interest of anybody. Not in the interest of non-proliferation and not in the interest of anybody to one that will, in fact, be a gain for all parties concerned. And I hope that at the end of this process we will all show that true dialogue and engagement with dignity we can, in fact, resolve problems, open new horizons and move forward.

Thank you very much.

Now I guess I get two questions in English, and I hope I will answer the questions in party (ph) in my other press conference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Samadi (ph), please present yourself.

QUESTION: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ZARIF: Do we have interpretation from English to Farsi or Farsi to English?

If I may, I - because the question has been asked by one of my compatriots, may I request the indulgence of non-Persian speaking friends and members of media here to respond in Farsi.

BLITZER: All right. while he's speaking in Farsi, I want to go back to our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

Jim, the Iranians, based on what we're hearing from Javad Zarif, the foreign minister of Iran, he's pretty happy about this deal and he says he's got a commitment that not only the U.N. Security Council resolution sanctions, the European sanctions, the U.S. sanctions, they will be phased out, I assume, over a period of time. We have no idea how quickly. But he sounds pretty pleased with what has been achieved, right?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he - I mean he used the word "terminated." That those sanctions, the U.S., EU sanctions and the U.N. sanctions would be terminated. You cannot underestimate the importance of those American and European sanctions on the Iranian economy. Both how much work - I mean years of diplomatic work from the U.S. side, going back to the Bush administration, accelerating under the Obama administration, to create an international and really a rare, almost unprecedented international group that was squeezing the Iranian economy.

And not just our western partners, but also China, reducing their purchases of Iranian oil, really squeezing that economy. And that's really been the key, many believe, to bringing Iran to the table. So you're seeing, if not today but over the coming weeks and months if this deal is verified, the dismantling of that entire structure. That's an enormous reward.

And I've - you know, I've been to Iran 10 times. Iranian people - you know, if the stock market was open in Iran tomorrow, which it won't be because it's Friday prayers, it would be shooting through the roof. The Iranian people, the economy, has been waiting with baited breath for the chance to really open up to the world again, do trade, buy, sell cars, travel, open businesses, et cetera. This has enormous economic rewards for Iran and very quickly.

Just a couple of the other details, and I would echo what others have said before here, more details here than expected, particularly with all the hiccups in recent days. You're looking at some of the most sensitive issues in Iran's nuclear program. Access to the Parchin (ph) facility. This is a military facility. This is where it's believed Iran had been experimenting with possible weaponization. Access there is major.

But on the other hand, keeping the Fordo (ph) facility, this is a secret - a once secret underground facility discovered only because of espionage by the U.S. The Iranians didn't announce it. That's going to stay open. It won't be spinning centrifuges, but it's going to stay open. That's going to raise the hackles not only of Congressmen and lawmakers here in the U.S., but certainly our allies in Israel. I mean, really, the key here going forward is going to be verification. How much access inspectors are going to have because, you know, that's the worry is that Iran might change its might at some point.

[14:05:00] But, you know, on those big picture issues, I would say the biggest one to zero in on is the economic reward for Iran very quickly. That's, from their perspective, an enormous windfall. And from the perspective of the U.S. and the west, it's dismantling something that took years to build. And with a lot of hiccups over the way and a lot of reneging on past agreements by Iran, that's enormous change if this agreement is verified.

BLITZER: Yes, you're absolutely right because if, in fact, those financial sanctions, U.S. financial sanctions, the European financial sanctions, those imposed by the United Nations Security, if they're lifted, that's billions, tens of billions maybe -

SCIUTTO: Yes. BLITZER: Eventually over a long period of time. Hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue for the Iranian economy that's going to go in, that's going to really dramatically, as you point out, boost that economy, if all that moves. That's why that is so important to Iran. That's clearly why the Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is so pleased, obviously very happy, jubilant I should say, by this deal.

I assume we're going to hear a very positive reaction now from John Kerry, the secretary of state, and the president of the United States, President Barack Obama. He's expected to speak in the Rose Garden at the White House, supposedly in about 10 minutes. Of course, we're standing by for that. We'll have live coverage.

Gloria Borger is our chief political analyst.

The president's going to have to say, this is a big deal, in order to convince members of Congress -

GLORIA BORGER, CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: Stop what you're doing. Don't go ahead and impose new sanctions. That can only derail what is going to be an important, historic deal as far as Iran's nuclear program is concerned. Then the question is, will he convince Republicans and democrats that this is a good opportunity?

BORGER: Well, I think he's got a lot of skeptics, Wolf, that he's going to have to convince. First of all, we were talking about timing. You heard Zarif say that all U.S. sanctions will be terminated. What we know is that the - that they would be terminated once we have verified that they're implementing their mission, as Zarif put it.

We don't know - we don't know whether that's between now and June 30th, for example. We don't know when that is. And I will tell you, from talking to members on both sides of the aisle today, that if there is any temporary softening between now and June 30th of those sanctions, Congress will try to step in forcefully and affect that.

Right now the president is up against three major kind of strands of legislation up there. First of all, they're saying that we have to have a final say in the bill. There is another measure that says you've got to ratchet up sanctions to get a better measure. And the third is, they want to make sure that the president cannot do this unilaterally. That he can't use waiver authority on something this large, this important, this consequential without having Congress' approval. And by the way, the American public also agrees via a majority says, you know what, we don't trust Iran and we don't trust the president to do this on his own. We need Congress to approve it.

BLITZER: All right, so stand by. I want to bring in Jake Tapper, our chief Washington correspondent. He's joining us from New York today. He's the anchor of "The Lead."

Jake, the president's going to have a major selling operation underway in the hours and days to come to convince members of Congress, stand back, stand by, don't pass new legislation, don't pass anything increasing sanctions against Iran. Let this deal be finalized by the end of June, put it all on paper and then see what happens. Talk a little bit about what's going on right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, it's important to note that there is a tremendous amount of flux going on right now when it comes to the Democratic Senate leadership. You have the senator, Harry Reid, announcing his retirement, Chuck Schumer stepping forward. He has been skeptical of a deal with Iran. You have Menendez, Senator Menendez, indicted. He is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is stepping down from that. He will be replaced by Ben Cardin from Maryland, who is much more supportive of President Obama when it comes to Iran. In those actions, that's good news for President Obama because some of the opposition to a deal with Iran, Democratic opposition, has been lessened.

There are a lot of details, Wolf, that we don't know yet. We know about a couple hardened nuclear facilities in Iran that we're told Iran will transform. The one at Fordo will be transformed from a nuclear - to a nuclear physics and technology facility. The one in Ara (ph) will be transferred to a heavy water research reactor that will not produce plutonium.

We still don't know how many centrifuges this deal will allow Iran to have. We still don't know what this deal will require Iran to do with all of its stockpile of uranium fuel. And then we don't know what this means, this idea that the sanctions will be lifted, as Gloria was just talking about, quote, once implementation of the agreement is confirmed. That could mean anything. So in terms of the selling President Obama has to do to Congress and to the American people, we still aren't even sure what he is going to be trying to sell.

[14:10:12] Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, he's going to have to not only sell it to Congress and the American people, he's going to have to sell it to the Israeli government, to the Saudi government, the Amaradis (ph). There's a lot of concern in that part of the world about what's going on. So this is a major diplomatic push he's going to have to undertake right now, Jake, and there's no doubt the stakes right now are enormous.

But certainly in terms of the body language that you're getting right now, it looks like they're very, very excited. We're expecting to hear from the president within about five or 10 minutes or so as he goes into the White House Rose Garden. He'll be walking out of the Oval Office into the Rose Garden. He's going to start that pitch right away and he's going to have to be very convincing, Jake.

TAPPER: That's right, Wolf. And you raise a very important issue. We've heard a lot about the opposition to a deal from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But as you correctly note, there is a lot of skepticism from the leaders of Sunni Arab countries in the Middle East. Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia. Many of them - many of the leaders of those countries have told reporters and congressional leaders in the last few months that they think this deal potentially is naive. Potentially, even looking back, by the way, on the framework that was

adopted a year ago which gave the Iranians two key gets. One of them, allowing them, in the view of these critics, allowing the Iranians to continue having a nuclear program. And, two, agreeing that there would be some sort of deadline to whatever this deal is, whether it's 10 years, 15 years, 17 years. We have no idea. So already when this framework was just adopted a year ago, there were many critics saying, we're giving away too much.

But as you pointed out, there is a lot of celebration going on right now among the world leaders and President Obama, I anticipate, will be proclaiming this and talking about this as a great step forward. And, of course, as has been said, we don't know yet the details of what he's trying to sell. And once we do, the administration has been saying for months amidst all this criticism of this potential deal, how can critics even criticize it, they don't know what's in the deal. We're about to find out what's in the deal. And then, of course, the true debate about what this deal constitutes can begin, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, stand by for a moment because we're standing by ourselves for the president of the United States. He's going to be walking out of the Oval Office, down to the microphone over there in the Rose Garden. The president will be making his statement.

They are now releasing more details about what this deal will include.

I want to go to our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

Jim, the president's got a major selling campaign underway. It's going to begin right away, momentarily, when he gets to the microphone there.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That sales job for President Obama starts now, or at least in a few minutes when he comes out here to talk to us about this deal with Iran and these other world powers. I can tell you from talking to White House officials, that they expect this sells job to be at the highest of levels. And so I think you can expect, Wolf, to see the congressional leadership over here at the White House in the coming days to sit down with the president. Obviously not over the next couple of days. He's supposed to go to Kentucky and Utah for some domestic messaging trips. But I would certainly expect that to happen next week.

And when you talk about this issue of trusting the Iranians, you know, the White House has said all along, and this is going to be one of the smell tests of this deal, is this whole notion that Susan Rice talked about over the last couple of weeks. She - her variation of the term trust but verify, hers is distrust but verify. This White House is going to be insisting on intrusive inspections all along the way. And the question is whether or not, once these inspectors get in there, are they getting access to all of these sensitive sites, all of these sensitive areas where they're ongoing to know, of course, whether or not the Iranians are cheating. And once that information gets back to Washington, what happens next?

And so, you know, we're now at a process that is really sort of the starting point, Wolf. This was a key hurdle that they had to get over. But we knew all along that March 31st was not the ultimate deadline. This June 30th deadline is obviously critical because they have to get down to the technical details. But then as the months go along, when the Iranians want these sanctions lifted, when they want this - the strangleholds taken off of their economy, the United States and these other world powers are going to insist that there be solid verification, you know, information that is coming out of this to make it very, very clear that they are holding up their end of the bargain.

One thing that we should also point out, Wolf, from talking to officials over here, is that the president has said all along, and the White House has said all along, if there is a deal coming out of this process in Switzerland, that he's going to come out and talk about it. The question, though, Wolf, I don't know whether or not he's going to take any questions. Obviously there are lots of questions that we have at this point. And he's already running a bit late this afternoon. He was supposed to be wheels up for Louisville, Kentucky, for this event in Kentucky, almost a couple of hours ago. And so we're almost at this point now where he's going to have to really give this statement and then run. But I'm sure there will be a lot of efforts here in the White House Rose Garden to ask him questions about this deal that's taking shape, Wolf.

[14:15:22] BLITZER: Yes, we're getting more information, Jim, and we're waiting for the president of the United States to walk in. A fact sheet just released by the administration says, "for 10 years Iran will limit domestic enrichment capacity and research and development, insuring a breakout timeline of at least one year." And then the - the - another part of the agreement, for 15 years Iran will limit additional elements of its program.

So those are specific details that are coming out. And as far as enriched uranium, they're also suggesting this deal, parts of it will be phased in over 10 years, parts over - will continue for 10 years, other parts for 15 years. But there will be a one year breakout. The sanctions will be lifted, but the sanction framework, they say, will remain in place in case they have to be, what they say, snapped back.

Jim Sciutto, you're going through this fact sheet as well. There are a lot of specifics in here, aren't there?

SCIUTTO: No question. Remarkably detailed. And getting to some of these key, most crucial, most contentious questions throughout these negotiations, one, of course, the sanctions, which we were talking about just a few minutes ago, Wolf. There will, as you mentioned, be - they will keep the infrastructure of sanctions in place. First of all, they will be lifted, but only once Iran's compliance with the deal is confirmed. Once that's confirmed, sanctions lifted. But if Iran ever strays from that in any way, it says here that both the U.S. sanctions infrastructure and the EU sanctions infrastructure can snap back, as it were. They could snap back into place to continue to restrict Iran's economy as a punishment.

Other key details in here. We haven't talked much about the Araq plant (ph). This is a heavy water facility which, in addition to all those centrifuges that have been spinning uranium, this is another path to a nuclear bomb. And it's been one of the key issue in the negotiations going forward. It says in here that the original core of this reactor is going to be destroyed and removed from the country. That's a pretty remarkable change to that facility.

Now, it will disappoint some because there are some observers, including here in Washington, who wanted the entire Iraq facility taken away. It's going to remain. But it's not going to have that same ability to produce what they call fissile (ph) material, material that could be used in a bomb. That's very key.

And then, as well, inspections, because, as we've said many times on this show, it's not the old trust but verify from the U.S./Soviet nuclear negotiations, (INAUDIBLE) negotiations. You'll often hear distrust but verify or verify and verify. That's something that Secretary of State John Kerry has liked to say. And in here you see the infrastructure of how those - how that access, how those inspections are going to carry out. Regular access to all of Iran's nuclear facilities, including the enrichment facility at Natanz (ph). Inspectors having even daily access at some of these facilities. That's very key, particularly for Furdo, which is that hidden one. I mean just to - these are all crazy names, it must sound to many of our viewers, but, you know, let's just draw attention to one of them.

Furdo was a hidden site. It was one that the Iranians did not want us to know that they had. It was only discovered by spying. That's now part of the deal. It will have greater inspections. It will no longer be spinning those tubes to create enriched uranium. But it's going to stay there and it's going to, in fact, keep some centrifuges inside. Again, one of those details that some observers, for instance in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Benjamin Netanyahu, for instance, up here on Capitol Hill, they're not going to be satisfied. But big picture, some very specific details in here.

And just one more I would mention, Wolf, just because it's near the top, that many of these provisions are not just for 10 years but 15 years, even 25 years for some of the facilities. So we're looking - we're looking out on many of these provisions for a couple of decades. That's a - that's a very long term agreement.

BLITZER: And certainly what motivates the Iranians is the relief they will get, the sanctions lifted from the EU, from the United Nations, from the U.S. Iran, as part of this fact sheet we've just received, will receive sanctions relief if it verifiably abides by its commitments. And then it says the U.S. and EU nuclear related sanctions will be suspended after the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has verified that Iran has taken all of its key nuclear related steps. If at any time Iran fails to fulfill its commitments, these sanctions will snap back into place.

Christiane Amanpour, we're waiting for the president of the United States to walk down those steps to go to the microphone, make his case why this is a good deal. One of the most sensitive issues, of course, is, what role, if any, Congress will have in all of this? And he's going to appeal certainly to Congress. This is not a treaty presumably he will say. It does not require ratification by two-thirds of the U.S. Senate as a formal treaty would require. [14:20:07] But if the U.S. is going to ease some of those

congressionally mandated sanctions, Christiane, Congress will have to do that. The president can't do that on his own. So he's got a major selling campaign he's got to undertake starting right now.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're probably absolutely right. There's been so much opposition inside the U.S. Congress, amongst U.S. allies, and the president does have to do a selling job.

But I think that beyond all the due diligence that we're all doing about what if and will there be, you know, snap back sanctions, and what, if they, you know, cheat or this and that. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this is pretty big what's just been achieved. After many, many hours locked around a table and 18 months of negotiations, they are deciding, and they have agreed to just about everything that they have been asked. There was no way Iran was going to stop enriching. You all know that. Thirty-five years of sanctions and estrangement and all the rest of it has not stopped them enriching.

So as Javad Zarif said in his presser, our country demanded, he said, a win/win situation. It hadn't got to be a zero sum game. There had to be something for all sides. And that was what they called negotiations with dignity.

This, for them, and a lot has been written about the sort of atmospherics around it, is real concessions in return for real incentives. So, they believe that they have done, you know, the job that they were tasked with doing. And so, I believe, does the United States and Europe. I mean to see these parameters set for 10, 15 and more years, that there will be no reprocessing at Araq (ph), that there will be no enrichment at Furdo, that there will only be enriching of 3.67 percent for the next 15 years.

That's big because they've been enriching up to 20 percent for a while. That they will dilute most of their stockpile. A lot of that is very, very significant. And while people might say, well, you know, what happens after 10 or 15 years, that's a long time in the future, 10 or 15 years. Nobody know what the political landscape is going to look like in 10 or 15 years. So, of course, people have their doubts about what might happen. But, for the moment, I think people will say that this is an arms control agreement with strict parameters for verification. Any time, any place, according to U.N. - the EU, rather. Any time, any place, additional protocol plus and they can look at past and future and present sites anywhere it is said in these annexes that is suspicious to the IAEA.

So it's more than has been achieved by all these years of sanctions.

BLITZER: Christiane, stand by for a moment because we're just getting in the first Israeli reaction to what's going on in Switzerland. The statement just released by the Israeli intelligence minister, Dr. Yuval Steinitz. And I'll paraphrase what he says, the intelligence minister. He says, while the representatives of the powers shake hands with the Iranians in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran continues its path of conquest, terrorism in Yemen across the Middle East and across the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, leading to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli intelligence minister, says the (INAUDIBLE) in Lausanne are disconnects from reality in which Iran has refused to make concessions on the nuclear issue and continues to threaten Israel and all other countries in the Middle East. Finally, Steinitz says, since the statement is far from being a real agreement, we will continue our efforts to explain and convince the world in the hope of preventing a bad agreement or at least make the necessary amends and improvements.

That's the first reaction from the government of Israel. It's not a statement from the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, it's a statement, though, from Israel's intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz.

Hala Gorani is in Lausanne watching what's going on.

Hala, you've been covering this story for a long time, like all of us. Give us your analysis of the historic moment that we're about to see as we await the president of the United States to make his formal statement.

HALA GORANI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I found it interesting that I have the fact sheet right here that was released, that the inspection period goes well beyond the agreed framework of 10 years, 25 years into the future. Now, that's a whole generation. And as Christiane was mentioning, it's difficult to imagine what the leadership will be in Iran or, for that matter, in the United States in 10 years, let alone 25 years into the future.

But having covered the talks here over the last several days, Wolf, it appeared as though many of these foreign ministers, including the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, were really trying to lower our expectations. Just three hours ago, I was able to speak with him and throw a couple of questions with him as he was reentered the building behind me here, that luxury hotel where the talks were going on. And I told him, what can we expect, at least a press statement? That's kind of what we were led to expect this evening. Nothing with the level of detail that was released and announced today. And he said, possibly a press statement. But I can't even confirm that. The drafting hasn't even started.

[14:25:10] Same thing with the French foreign minister. When we asked him, are you hopeful? His reply was, by nature I'm hopeful. You know, sometimes we would just sort of a nod and a smile. So it appears that (INAUDIBLE) the foreign minister here, until early the last second -

BLITZER: All right, hold on, Hala. Hala, hold on for a moment because the president is now walking into the Rose Garden to make his statement.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everybody.

Today, the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached a historic understanding with Iran, which, if fully implemented, will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. As president and commander-in-chief, I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people. And I am convinced that if this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer.

This has been a long time coming. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been advancing its nuclear program for decades. By the time I took office, Iran was operating thousands of centrifuges, which can produce the materials for a nuclear bomb. And Iran was concealing a covert nuclear facility. I made clear that we were prepared to resolve this issue diplomatically, but only if Iran came to the table in a serious way.

When that did not happen, we rallied the world to impose the toughest sanctions in history. Sanctions which had a profound impact on the Iranian economy. Now, sanctions alone could not stop Iran's nuclear program, but they did help bring Iran to the negotiating table. Because of our diplomatic efforts, the world stood with us. And we were joined at the negotiating table by the world's major powers, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China, as well as the European Union.

Over a year ago, we took the first step towards today's framework, with a deal to stop the progress of Iran's nuclear program and roll it back in key areas. And recall that at the times skeptics argued that Iran would cheat and that we could not verify their compliance and the interim agreement would fail. Instead, it has succeed exactly as intended. Iran has met all of its obligations. It eliminated its stockpile of dangerous nuclear material. Inspections of Iran's program increased. And we continued negotiations to see if we could achieve a more comprehensive deal.

Today, after many months of tough principle diplomacy, we have achieved the framework for that deal. And it is a good deal. A deal that meets our core objectives. This framework would cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran will face strict limitations on its program and Iran has also agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regime ever negotiated for any nuclear program in history. So this deal is not based on trust. It's based on unprecedented verification.

Many key details will be finalized over the next three months. And nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed. But here are the basic outline of the deal that we are working to finalize. First, Iran will not be able to pursue a bomb using plutonium because it will not develop weapons grade plutonium. The core of its reactor at Araq (ph) will be dismantled and replaced. The spent fuel from that facility will be shipped out of Iran for the life of the reactor. Iran will not build a new heavy water reactor. And Iran will not reprocess fuel from its existing reactors, ever.

Second, this deal shuts down Iran's path to a bomb using enriched uranium. Iran has agreed that its installed centrifuges will be reduced by two-thirds. Iran will no longer enrich uranium at its Furdo facility. Iran will not enrich uranium with its advanced centrifuges for at least the next 10 years. The vast majority of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium will be neutralized.

[14:29:52] Today, estimates indicate that Iran is only two or three months away from potentially acquiring the raw materials that could be used for a single nuclear bomb. Under this deal, Iran has agreed that it will not stockpile the materials needed to build a weapon.