President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday a UN watchdog’s closure of investigations into Iran’s past nuclear activities is a political victory for the country, lifting the main obstacle to implementi
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday a UN watchdog’s closure of investigations into Iran’s past nuclear activities is a political victory for the country, lifting the main obstacle to implementing Tehran’s deal with world powers.
The 35-nation governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution on Tuesday ending the IAEA’s 12-year-long inquiry into suspicions of “possible military dimensions” (PMD) to Iran’s nuclear work. “Now the main obstacle to implement the (July nuclear deal between Iran and six powers) is lifted..., Iran will start implementation of the nuclear deal within two or three weeks,” Mr Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
Mr Rouhani, a pragmatist whose election in 2013 led to a diplomatic thaw between the Islamic Republic and the West, voiced hope that sanctions on Iran would be removed in January, “delivering one of the electoral promises of the government”.
Mr Rouhani is hurrying to carry out Iran’s side of the deal so as to bring about the removal of sanctions hobbling its oil-based economy before the parliamentary election in February.
To that end, Iran is to reduce the number of installed uranium-enriching centrifuges to around 6,100 from 19,000. It must also remove the core of the Arak heavy-water reactor so that it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium.
In a further move meant to reassure that Iran will not illicitly divert nuclear energy to bombmaking, much of its stockpile of enriched uranium is to be exchanged for a less refined form of uranium known as yellowcake.
