BA Boeing Co

By Felicia Schwartz 

PARIS--Secretary of State John Kerry said the Iran nuclear agreement "has lived up to its expectations," marking the first anniversary of the landmark accord reached last year between six world powers and Iran to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Since the accord took effect in January, Iran has complied with the key nuclear parameters, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Tehran has slashed its stockpiles of uranium and heavy water in addition to pouring cement in the core of its Arak reactor as part of a process to convert it to a modified reactor that is seen as posing a much reduced nuclear-proliferation threat.

The IAEA has better access to Iran's nuclear program and overall Iran is under much stricter limits, many of which expire in the next decade. Iran's breakout time, or the time it would take Iran to amass enough nuclear material for a bomb, is one year, which was a key goal of the Obama administration.

Mr. Kerry said Thursday that so far Iran is "living up to it is part of this bargain and obligation." He also acknowledged the challenges that remain between the U.S. and Iran, as tensions between them remain high.

"Nobody pretends that some of the challenges we have with Iran have somehow been wiped away. This program was about a nuclear track and about a nuclear program," Mr. Kerry said.

Channels for discussion created by seeking the agreement have allowed the U.S. to pursue other concerns with Tehran, including its activities in Syria and Yemen, he said.

Iran's support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and continued missile tests, as well as its complaints it hasn't seen as much economic relief since the deal took effect in January has left the deal on shaky ground. The longer-term promise of the agreement, in that it could lead to improved ties between Washington and Tehran, has yet to be realized.

Tehran continues human-rights abuses, such as the detention of dual nationals, human rights groups say. Iran has also persisted conducting provocative behavior in the region, carrying out a series of missile tests in recent months that U.S. and U.N. officials have said contradict the spirit of the deal, but which the U.S. has found itself unable to pursue in the U.N. Security Council because of the language included in the accord.

On Wednesday, Iran's president Hassan Rouhani, who is a strong proponent of the deal, warned that Iran would pull back from the deal if the other parties, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China, didn't adhere to their promises of sanctions relief.

Iranian officials have accused the U.S. of deliberately discouraging business dealings with Iran, an allegation the Obama administration has denied. The Obama administration is exploring ways to further help integrate Iran into the global economy, including by giving Iran limited access to the dollar.

Iran is still subject to unilateral American sanctions and the country has struggled to attract big foreign investments, partly because it is having trouble gaining access to the international banking system. Mr. Kerry has made personal presentations to European bankers to encourage legal business allowed by the deal.

A recent billion-dollar deal announced by Boeing to sell jetliners to Iran could pave the way for future business deals but faces challenges from the U.S. Congress. The House voted to block the sale last week. The White House hopes such deals can help underpin the nuclear agreement.

Iran has always maintained that its nuclear program was purely peaceful. The Obama administration concluded, however, that uranium particles found last year at Iran's secretive military base Parchin as part of an investigation tied to the nuclear deal were likely part of the country's past covert nuclear weapons program.

German authorities detected repeated efforts by Iran-tied companies and organizations to illegally obtain nuclear equipment in the months after July 2015, when Tehran and six world powers reached the deal in Vienna. Efforts have continued this year, but at a significantly lower level, The Wall Street Journal reported, and U.S. and German officials said Iran hasn't breached the agreement since it went into effect in January.

Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 14, 2016 05:28 ET (09:28 GMT)

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