The President: Today, after
two years of negotiations,
the United States, together
with our international
partners, has achieved
something that decades
of animosity has not -- a 
comprehensive, long-term deal
with Iran that will
prevent it from obtaining
a nuclear weapon.
This deal demonstrates that
American diplomacy can bring
about real and meaningful
change -- change that makes
our country, and the world,
safer and more secure.
This deal is also in
line with a tradition
of American leadership.
It's now more than 50 years
since President Kennedy
stood before the American
people and said,
"Let us never
negotiate out of fear,
but let us never
fear to negotiate."
He was speaking then about
the need for discussions
between the United States
and the Soviet Union,
which led to efforts to restrict
the spread of nuclear weapons.
In those days, the risk
was a catastrophic
nuclear war between
two super powers.
In our time, the risk is
that nuclear weapons will
spread to more and more
countries, particularly
in the Middle East, the most
volatile region in our world.
Today, because America
negotiated from a position
of strength and principle,
we have stopped
the spread of nuclear
weapons in this region.
Because of this deal, the
international community
will be able to verify
that the Islamic Republic
of Iran will not develop
a nuclear weapon.
This deal meets every single
one of the bottom lines
that we established when
we achieved a framework
earlier this spring.
Every pathway to a nuclear
weapon is cut off.
And the inspection and
transparency regime necessary
to verify that objective
will be put in place.
Because of this deal, Iran
will not produce the highly
enriched uranium and
weapons-grade plutonium that
form the raw materials
necessary for a nuclear bomb.
Because of this deal, Iran
will remove two-thirds of its
installed centrifuges -- the
machines necessary to produce
highly enriched uranium
for a bomb -- and store
them under constant
international supervision.
Iran will not use its
advanced centrifuges
to produce enriched uranium
for the next decade.
Iran will also get
rid of 98 percent
of its stockpile of
enriched uranium.
To put that in perspective,
Iran currently has a stockpile
that could produce up
to 10 nuclear weapons.
Because of this deal, that
stockpile will be reduced
to a fraction of what would be
required for a single weapon.
This stockpile limitation
will last for 15 years.
Because of this deal,
Iran will modify the core
of its reactor in Arak so
that it will not produce
weapons-grade plutonium.
And it has agreed to ship the
spent fuel from the reactor
out of the country for the
lifetime of the reactor.
For at least the next
15 years, Iran will
not build any new
heavy-water reactors.
Because of this deal, we
will, for the first time,
be in a position to verify
all of these commitments.
That means this deal
is not built on trust;
it is built on verification.
Inspectors will have
24/7 access to Iran's
key nuclear facilities.
Inspectors will have access
to Iran's entire nuclear
supply chain -- its
uranium mines and mills,
its conversion facility, and
its centrifuge manufacturing
and storage facilities.
This ensures that Iran
will not be able to divert
materials from known
facilities to covert ones.
Some of these transparency
measures will be in place
for 25 years.
Because of this deal,
inspectors will also
be able to access any
suspicious location.
Put simply, the organization
responsible for the inspections,
the IAEA, will have access where
necessary, when necessary.
That arrangement
is permanent.
And the IAEA has also reached
an agreement with Iran to get
access that it needs to
complete its investigation
into the possible military
dimensions of Iran's
past nuclear research.
Finally, Iran is permanently
prohibited from pursuing
a nuclear weapon under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty, which provided the
basis for the international
community's efforts to
apply pressure on Iran.
As Iran takes steps to
implement this deal,
it will receive relief from
the sanctions that we put
in place because of
Iran's nuclear program --
both America's own sanctions
and sanctions imposed
by the United Nations
Security Council.
This relief will
be phased in.
Iran must complete key
nuclear steps before
it begins to receive
new sanctions relief.
And over the course
of the next decade,
Iran must abide by the deal
before additional sanctions
are lifted, including five
years for restrictions related
to arms, and eight years
for restrictions related
to ballistic missiles.
All of this will be
memorialized and endorsed
in a new United Nations
Security Council resolution.
And if Iran violates the
deal, all of these sanctions
will snap back into place.
So there's a very clear
incentive for Iran to follow
through, and there are very real
consequences for a violation.
That's the deal.
It has the full backing of
the international community.
Congress will now have an
opportunity to review the
details, and my administration
stands ready to provide
extensive briefings on how
this will move forward.
As the American people and
Congress review the deal,
it will be important to
consider the alternative.
Consider what happens in
a world without this deal.
Without this deal, there is no
scenario where the world joins
us in sanctioning Iran until
it completely dismantles
its nuclear program.
Nothing we know about the
Iranian government suggests that
it would simply capitulate
under that kind of pressure.
And the world would not support
an effort to permanently
sanction Iran into submission.
We put sanctions in place to
get a diplomatic resolution,
and that is what we have done.
Without this deal, there would
be no agreed-upon limitations
for the Iranian nuclear program.
Iran could produce, operate and
test more and more centrifuges.
Iran could fuel a reactor
capable of producing
plutonium for a bomb.
And we would not have any of
the inspections that allow
us to detect a covert
nuclear weapons program.
In other words, no deal means
no lasting constraints
on Iran's nuclear program.
Such a scenario would make it
more likely that other countries
in the region would feel
compelled to pursue their own
nuclear programs,
threatening a nuclear arms
race in the most
volatile region of the world.
It would also present the
United States with fewer
and less effective
options to prevent Iran
from obtaining a
nuclear weapon.
I've been President and
Commander-in-Chief for
over six years now.
Time and again, I
have faced decisions
about whether or not
to use military force.
It's the gravest decision that
any President has to make.
Many times, in
multiple countries,
I have decided to use force.
And I will never
hesitate to do so when
it is in our national
security interest.
I strongly believe that our
national security interest now
depends upon preventing Iran
from obtaining a nuclear weapon
-- which means that without
a diplomatic resolution,
either I or a future U.S.
President would face
a decision about
whether or not to allow
Iran to obtain a nuclear
weapon or whether to use
our military to stop it.
Put simply, no deal
means a greater chance
of more war in
the Middle East.
Moreover, we give nothing
up by testing whether
or not this problem can
be solved peacefully.
If, in a worst-case scenario,
Iran violates the deal,
the same options that are
available to me today will
be available to any U.S.
President in the future.
And I have no doubt that
10 or 15 years from now,
the person who holds this
office will be in a far
stronger position with Iran
further away from a weapon
and with the inspections
and transparency that
allow us to monitor the
Iranian program.
For this reason, I believe
it would be irresponsible
to walk away from this deal.
But on such a tough issue,
it is important that
the American people and their
representatives in Congress
get a full opportunity
to review the deal.
After all, the
details matter.
And we've had some of the
finest nuclear scientists
in the world working
through those details.
And we're dealing with
a country -- Iran --
that has been a sworn
adversary of the United States
for over 35 years.
So I welcome a robust debate
in Congress on this issue,
and I welcome scrutiny of the
details of this agreement.
But I will remind
Congress that you don't
make deals like this
with your friends.
We negotiated arms
control agreements with
the Soviet Union when
that nation was committed
to our destruction.
And those agreements
ultimately made us safer.
I am confident that this deal
will meet the national security
interest of the United
States and our allies.
So I will veto any
legislation that
prevents the successful
implementation of this deal.
We do not have to accept an
inevitable spiral into conflict.
And we certainly
shouldn't seek it.
And precisely because
the stakes are so high,
this is not the time for
politics or posturing.
Tough talk from Washington
does not solve problems.
Hard-nosed diplomacy, leadership
that has united the world's
major powers offers a more
effective way to verify
that Iran is not pursuing
a nuclear weapon.
Now, that doesn't mean
that this deal will
resolve all of our
differences with Iran.
We share the concerns expressed
by many of our friends
in the Middle East, including
Israel and the Gulf States,
about Iran's support for
terrorism and its use of proxies
to destabilize the region.
But that is precisely why
we are taking this step --
because an Iran armed with
a nuclear weapon would
be far more destabilizing
and far more dangerous
to our friends
and to the world.
Meanwhile, we will maintain
our own sanctions related
to Iran's support for
terrorism, its ballistic
missile program, and its
human rights violations.
We will continue our
unprecedented efforts to
strengthen Israel's security
-- efforts that go beyond
what any American
administration has done before.
And we will continue the work we
began at Camp David to elevate
our partnership with the
Gulf States to strengthen
their capabilities to
counter threats from Iran
or terrorist groups like ISIL.
However, I believe that we
must continue to test whether
or not this region, which
has known so much suffering,
so much bloodshed, can move
in a different direction.
Time and again, I have made
clear to the Iranian people
that we will always be
open to engagement
on the basis of mutual
interests and mutual respect.
Our differences are real
and the difficult history
between our nations
cannot be ignored.
But it is possible
to change.
The path of violence
and rigid ideology,
a foreign policy based on
threats to attack your
neighbors or eradicate
Israel -- that's a dead end.
A different path, one of
tolerance and peaceful
resolution of conflict, leads to
more integration into the global
economy, more engagement with
the international community,
and the ability of the Iranian
people to prosper and thrive.
This deal offers an opportunity
to move in a new direction.
We should seize it.
We have come a long way to
reach this point -- decades
of an Iranian nuclear program,
many years of sanctions,
and many months of
intense negotiation.
Today, I want to thank the
members of Congress from both
parties who helped us put in
place the sanctions that have
proven so effective,
as well as the other
countries who joined
us in that effort.
I want to thank our
negotiating partners --
the United Kingdom, France,
Germany, Russia, China,
as well as the
European Union --
for our unity in this
effort, which showed that
the world can do remarkable
things when we share
a vision of peacefully
addressing conflicts.
We showed what we can do
when we do not split apart.
And finally, I want to thank
the American negotiating team.
We had a team of experts
working for several
weeks straight on this,
including our Secretary
of Energy, Ernie Moniz.
And I want to particularly
thank John Kerry,
our Secretary of State, who
began his service to this
country more than four
decades ago when he put
on our uniform and
went off to war.
He's now making this country
safer through his commitment
to strong, principled
American diplomacy.
History shows that America must
lead not just with our might,
but with our principles.
It shows we are stronger
not when we are alone,
but when we bring
the world together.
Today's announcement marks
one more chapter in this
pursuit of a safer and more
helpful and more hopeful world.
Thank you.
God bless you.
And God bless the United
States of America.
