Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress

On August 6, 2015 the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report entitled Iran Nuclear Agreement: Selected Issues for Congress By Kenneth Katzman and Paul K. Kerr. The agreement between Iran and the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia, and China (countries labelled the P5+1), is under review by Congress until September 17. A paragraph in the report's summary describes the agreement in broad terms:

Broadly, the accord represents an exchange of limitations on Iran’s nuclear program for the lifting or suspension of U.S., U.N., and European Union (EU) sanctions. The text contains relatively complicated provisions for inspections of undeclared Iranian nuclear facilities, processes for adjudicating complaints by any of the parties for nonperformance of commitments, "snap-back" provisions for U.N. sanctions, finite durations for many of Iran’s nuclear commitments, and broad U.N., E.U., and U.S. commitments to suspend or lift most of the numerous sanctions imposed on Iran since 2010. Many of the agreement’s provisions have raised questions about the degree to which the accord can accomplish the P5+1 objectives that were stated when P5+1-Iran negotiations began in 2006.