The world would risk “even more war in the Middle East” without the nuclear agreement with Iran, US President Barack Obama has warned.
He challenged critics of Tuesday’s deal to present a better alternative. This is seen as a veiled reference to his Republican opponents in Congress.
The UN Security Council will vote next week on a resolution endorsing the agreement, Iran says.
In return for an end to sanctions, Iran will limit its nuclear activities.
The deal, reached with six world powers in Vienna, would begin to be implemented by November, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier on Wednesday.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement proved that “constructive engagement works”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, denounced what he called a “stunning historic mistake”.
‘Victory for Iran’
At a news conference in Washington, President Obama said: “Without a deal, we risk even more war in the Middle East, and other countries in the Middle East would feel compelled to develop their own nuclear weapons.”
He expressed hopes that the agreement would encourage Iran to “behave differently,” citing “its support of terrorism and its use of proxies to destabilise parts of the Middle East.”
Mr Obama said that the US would seek greater co-operation from Tehran on ending the wars in Syria and Yemen. But he added: “We’re not betting on it.”
He also urged members of the US Congress to judge the agreement “based on the facts, not on politics”.
American lawmakers have 60 days to review the deal.
The UN Security Council passed six resolutions between 2006 and 2010 requiring Iran to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used for civilian purposes, but also to build nuclear bombs.
After returning to Tehran, Mr Zarif said: “These talks have concluded in a situation when the Security Council – for the first time in its history – will give official recognition to a developing country’s enrichment programme through a resolution next week.”
Diplomats told the Reuters news agency that the US would circulate a draft text on Wednesday that would terminate the previous resolutions but enshrine a mechanism for the sanctions they included to automatically “snap back” if Iran breached its commitments.
The five permanent members of the Security Council who could veto any resolution – the US, UK, France, Russia and China – were part of the so-called P5+1 group of world powers that signed the deal with Iran, along with Germany.
“We hope that more or less within four months, measures taken by both sides show results and implementation of the deal begins,” Mr Zarif said.
President Rouhani told a cabinet meeting that Iran had not “surrendered.
“The deal is a legal, technical and political victory for Iran,” he said. “It’s an achievement that Iran won’t be called a world threat anymore.”
Hours earlier, Republicans in the US Congress lined up to condemn the deal.(BBC)
