U.N. Security Council and EU Approve Iran Deal

By JTA July 20, 2015

The United Nations Security Council and the European Union both approved the Iran nuclear deal.

The 15 members of the Security Council in New York unanimously adopted a resolution on Monday to approve the agreement reached in Vienna last week between Iran and the world powers.

Under the resolution, the United Nations will lift its sanctions against Iran after a report is submitted by its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, verifying Iranian steps curbing its nuclear program as agreed to in the Austrian capital.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch opponent of the agreement, in advance of the vote called the resolution “hypocritical.”

“The United Nations Security Council gives legitimacy to a country that systematically violates its resolutions and threatens to destroy Israel,” Netanyahu said.

The European Union also approved the deal on Monday in a vote in Brussels. The EU also will gradually lift sanctions on Iran.

“It is a balanced deal that means Iran won’t get an atomic bomb,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, according to Reuters. “It is a major political deal.”

The deal would remove international sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran freezing and storing much of its nuclear infrastructure, ridding much of its stockpile of enriched uranium and converting its nuclear facilities for between 10 and 15 years.

On Sunday, the U.S. State Department officially sent the agreement to Congress, which has 60 days to review it.

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