Sunday 5 April 2015

The Iran foreign policy deal will make the world safer this Easter, and potentially for years to come

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32172301

Iran holds the key to so much in the Middle East, and the successful agreement reached after months of negotiations is genuinely a very good step forward.

Full credit to all the diplomats and politicians on both sides including our Foreign Secretary, who has worked hand in glove with America's John Kerry, for ages to secure this deal. The deal lifts punitive sanctions and allows the reintegration of Iran back in to the world whilst at the same time preventing an escalation of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

President Obama has hailed the deal restricting Iran's nuclear programme as a "historic understanding" which, if implemented, will make the world safer. I support the efforts made, and the compromises that have to be reached to secure a better today and a far safer future.

The hope is that the improvement in Iran relations will now improve the prospects for deescalation of violence in the wider Middle East. If this happens it will be a genuine tipping point.

If you want to read more on this issue my speech and the full debate on this country, and the wider Middle Eastern issues, in the Commons late last year, is found here: http://guyopperman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/iran-debatemy-speech-powerful-speeches.html