IAEA green light for ending Iran sanctions

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The UN atomic watchdog yesterday gave the green light for last July’s landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers to enter into force.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its “inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures required under the (July deal)... to enable Implementation Day to occur”.
The announcement means that a raft of painful US EU and UN sanctions against Iran can be lifted allowing oil exports to resume and opening up the 80mn-strong country to business.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif said earlier as he arrived for a final round of talks in Vienna with US Secretary of State John Kerry that it was a “good day for the world”.
It also follows news of a prisoner swap between Iran and the US in another sign of thawing relations between the two foes since the July 14 agreement.
The steps taken by Iran combined with ultra-close IAEA inspections extend to at least a year - from a few months previously - how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb’s worth of fissile material.
They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges reducing its stockpile of uranium - enough before the deal for several bombs - and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.
Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes such as power generation.
In what was hailed as a momentous diplomatic breakthrough the Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following the June 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives ever-tighter sanctions defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.
In addition it put Iran and the US on the road to better relations some 35 years after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah and at a particularly explosive time in the Middle East.
The four Iranian-American detainees to be freed by Iran included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Saeed Abedini a pastor from Idaho a senior US official said yesterday.
The others are Amir Hekmati and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari Washington said. A fifth American identified as Matthew Trevitick was also to be released as part of a different process.
In exchange Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians six of whom are dual US-Iranian citizens and dropped charges against 14 more.
The agreement heralded as US President Barack Obama’s biggest major foreign policy triumph has by no means been universally cheered however.
Obama’s Republican opponents charge that it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never get the bomb a complaint shared by Israel Iran’s arch foe widely assumed to have nuclear weapons itself.
Iran’s imminent return to the oil market has contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under $30 per barrel this week.
The deal has more than a decade to run which is likely to be a bumpy road experts say not least if more hardline governments take power in Tehran or Washington.
The two countries are still far from being best friends as witnessed by Iran’s recent capture of 10 US sailors in Iranian waters although their improved relations did help ensure their swift release.
Iran violated a UN resolution in October when it test-launched a medium-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead a UN panel of experts concluded in a report in December.
A “snapback” mechanism ensures that many of the sanctions can be swiftly reimposed and a special joint commission is meant to handle any misunderstandings. Page 10