John Kerry: Mark this as day of a safer world
John Kerry: Mark this as day of a safer world
The US and the EU on Sunday lifted biting oil and financial sanctions on Iran and unblocked about $100 billion of its frozen assets after the UN inspectors concluded that Tehran has complied with a historic deal to curb its nuclear ambitions.
“Today marks the day of a safer world,” US secretary of state John Kerry said in Vienna as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certified that Iran has fulfilled its promises to world powers under a July 14 deal. “Iran has taken every step that it committed to take, dating back two full years,” Mr Kerry said.
“Today marks the moment the Iran deal has transitioned from ambitious promises on paper to measurable actions in practice,” he said.
The US sanctions-related commitments are now in effect, Kerry said, announcing lifting of crippling sanctions against Iran, which has the fourth largest oil reserves in the world.
His statement came just hours after Tehran and Washington swapped long-held prisoners.
Reacting to the developments, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said, “We Iranians have reached out to the world in a sign of friendliness, and leaving behind the enmities, suspicions and plots, have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world.”
“The implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not a loss for any country,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Mr Rouhani as saying.
“The friends of Iran are happy and its competitors need not worry, we are not a threat to any government or nation. We are a messenger of peace, stability and security in the region and the world,” he said.
The landmark deal between Iran and world powers - the US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany - was agreed last July.
In a joint statement with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Vienna, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, representing the six world powers, said that as a result “multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme are lifted”.
“This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues,” she said.
The sanctions have cost Iran more than over USD 160 billion in oil revenue since 2012 alone. Once they are lifted, the country will be able to resume selling oil on international markets and using the global financial system for trade.
In its report, IAEA said Iran has shipped 98 per cent of its fuel to Russia and dismantled more than 12,000 centrifuges so that they could not enrich uranium any further.
Iran also poured cement into the core of a reactor designed to produce plutonium, it added. Iran has various obligations under the nuclear agreement.
They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.
Iran has always maintained its nuclear programme is peaceful, but opponents of the deal - such as some US Republicans - say it does not do enough to ensure the country cannot develop a nuclear bomb. Lifting the sanctions will unfreeze nearly USD 100 billion of assets, allow Iran’s oil to be sold internationally and reconnect Iranian banks to the global system.
