An agreement between the United States, Iran and other world powers on Tehran’s nuclear program is effective and would work if implemented, US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said on Wednesday.
“I think we’ve established a very strong set of parameters around the agreement,” Moniz said at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston, the world’s largest gathering of oil executives, Reuters reported.
“It’s a long term process with constraints coming off at various time frames as confidence improves” in Iran’s nuclear program.
A framework agreement that would place restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program for a specified period of time in exchange for lifting sanctions was announced earlier this month. The deal is set to be finalized by June.
Moniz was intimately involved in the nuclear minutia of the 8-day discussions. He told the conference he negotiated through the night at one point with Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi on nuclear centrifuges, reactor design, uranium stockpiles and other issues.
Moniz, a nuclear physicist who was appointed by President Barack Obama two years ago, noted it was his specialty that led him to assist Secretary of State John Kerry in negotiations.
“It was not part of the description of the job when I signed up,” Moniz said. Historically, US energy secretaries do not get involved in foreign policy.
Both Moniz and Salehi attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a commonality that Moniz said helped draw them closer during negotiations.
“It was very clear that we were there to solve problems,” he said. “It was not about posturing.”
