Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted last Sunday that the Obama administration had mischaracterized the written agreement between the two countries, saying that the White House that underplays concessions and overplays Iran’s commitment to the deal.

  According to the deal Iran was to dispose of all uranium that had been enriched over 20%.  Additionally the deal also required Iran to stop all enrichment of uranium above the 5% and according to the statement from the White House, “dismantle the technical connections required to enrich above 5%.”

  The relevance of enriched uranium is at a certain percentage, the uranium can be used in production of nuclear weapons.  5% is the minimum agreed amount that is needed to produce nuclear energy, and above the 25%-30% marker of enriched uranium can be used for nukes.  At 20%, Iran’s nuclear program stands at a percentage of enriched uranium that is excessive for only using it for power.  However, 20% is too low to be used for making weapons, although the growing percentage of enriched uranium is causing a stir in the White House as well as the UN.

  Zarif claimed in an interview with CNN that the wording used by the White House is making the agreement seem as if Iran is dismantling its nuclear program.  Zarif said that if anywhere in the actual text agreement between the US and Iran that anybody could find a work that even closely resembled dismantling, that he would take his statement back.

  Zarif restated that Iran is not destroying its centrifuges and dismantling its program, Iran is just not enriching uranium over the agreed 5% level.  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made a statement saying that, “We are ready to provide confidence that there should be no concern about Iran’s program.”

  This agreement has been in the midst of the Syrian talks that started in Montreux which were then moved to Geneva.  Furthering pressures between the US and Iran, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was uninvited under pressure from the United States, taking away even more credibility from the White House from Iran’s point of view.