The White House announced Sunday that Iran will start whittling down its stockpile of enriched uranium by Jan. 20, giving a sense of momentum to the agreement announced in November between Washington and Tehran.

That said, this latest development is being couched in what might generously be called tentative language. Secretary of State John Kerry, take it away (via CNN):

“As of that day, for the first time in almost a decade, Iran’s nuclear program will not be able to advance, and parts of it will be rolled back, while we start negotiating a comprehensive agreement to address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s program,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Sunday.

As part of the agreement, Iran has agreed to start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium, to dismantle some infrastructure that makes higher-level uranium enrichment possible, and not to start up additional centrifuges.

The White House made noises about easing some sanctions against Iran in return for the hypothetical scenarios outlined above. Watch this space.

–Posted by Kasia Anderson

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#barack obama#enrichment#iran#john kerry#nuclear#nuclear arms#sanctions#tehran