Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has acknowledged that much of the P5+1 nuclear agreement with Iran remains secret.

Officials said the White House has withheld many details of the interim nuclear agreement between Iran and Western powers. They said a detailed summary was issued to Congress with extracts released to the public.

“Now, these types of documents are not always made public,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. “In this instance, it is the preference of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] that certain technical aspects of the technical understandings remain confidential.”

On Jan. 16, the White House released a summary of the so-called Joint Plan of Action, which includes a timetable of IAEA inspections as well as the unfreezing of nearly $7 billion of $100 billion in Iranian foreign exchange holdings. Most of the White House summary was already released in previous briefings by the administration.

Officials acknowledged that the summary was released under congressional pressure. They said many in the Democratic-controlled Senate warned that they would support additional sanctions on Iran unless the American people were informed of the nuclear accord.

“We will now focus on the critical work of pursuing a comprehensive
resolution that addresses our concerns over Iran’s nuclear program,” the
White House said.

The accord is scheduled to begin implementation today, Jan. 20. The summary
asserted that Iran agreed to halt production of near-20 percent uranium and
refrain from enrichment at 50 percent of gas centrifuges installed at Natanz
and 75 percent at Fordow. The IAEA would be allowed to visit the two
facilities on a daily basis.

IAEA said Iran has asked for a delay in the implementation of the
agreement. Officials said Teheran pushed off a meeting with the UN nuclear
agency from Jan. 21 to Feb. 8 to discuss allegations of a nuclear weapons
program.

The administration of President Barack Obama has not ruled out that Iran
would not honor the agreement. A senior official said Teheran was still
working through fronts in Europe to acquire banned nuclear technology.

“We have seen over many years that the Iranians take advantage of the
commercial and financial relationships that purport to be for legitimate
purposes to surreptitiously acquire materials that they are looking for for
their nuclear program and their ballistic missile program, to facilitate
their support for terrorism,” the official said in a briefing on Jan. 17.

  Fordow, IAEA, Jay Carney, Natanz, P5+1, White House admits: Many details of Iran nuclear deal are a secret