27 Apr 2024
Tuesday 28 April 2015 - 09:36
Story Code : 162458

Salehi stresses overall removal of insurance, banking, oil sanctions

TEHRAN (FNA)- Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi underlined that all embargos imposed against Iran's different economic sectors, including oil, banking and insurance industries, will be removed right after Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) strike a final agreement.

"All insurance, oil, financial and banking sanctions will be removed as soon as a comprehensive agreement will take effect," Salehi said during a Q & A meeting with students at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran on Monday.

He noted that if Tehran and the world powers strike a final deal all the resolutions of the UN Security Council which include six resolutions will also be revoked in the form of a single UNSC resolution.

Earlier today, Salehi said the six world powers have agreed to immediately lift all sanctions on Iran as part of a potential deal on the country's nuclear program.

Salehi said the single-stage removal of sanctions on Iran has been one of the major sticking points throughout the negotiations with the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), China's CCTV reported.

He stressed that Iran will safeguard its national interests and will stick to its red lines as talks continue.

On Friday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi underlined that all sanctions against the country will be terminated on the very same day that the final nuclear agreement between Tehran and the world powers will be put into effect.

Araqchi made the remarks after three days of negotiations with his counterparts from the G5+1 in Vienna to draft a comprehensive deal.

He said the negotiations in the last three days focused on the removal of sanctions against Iran, and explained given the contradictory remarks made by the other side before the three-day negotiations, some "misunderstandings" had been created which needed to be obviated.

Araqchi stressed that Iran's position is crystal clear, adding, "All economic and financial sanctions should be annulled on the same day that the agreement is put into action, and an agreement has been made on this very same basis and we are now trying to write it down."

He described writing the final deal as complicated and extensive, given the different dimensions of the sanctions. "We can say in one sentence that all economic sanctions should be removed, but given the different types of the sanctions which exist and their highly different aspects, it is a difficult job."

Explaining that certain sanctions are related to the UN Security Council and some others have been imposed by the US and Europe, Araqchi expressed the hope that drafting the final nuclear agreement will come to an end before the July 1.

He termed the three-day talks with his counterparts in G5+1 "good and useful", and said, "It is a difficult job and we will move ahead at a slow pace."

Iran announced on Wednesday that changes could still be made to the April 2 nuclear statement that was issued by Tehran and the world powers at the end of their several-day-long negotiations in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

"Mr. Araqchi has stated in an interview before that certain paragraphs (of the Lausanne statement) could still change and go under further negotiations," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told reporters in Tehran.

She reminded the Americans' confession that they had no way out but accepting Iran's nuclear rights, and dismissed US officials' allegations about use of force or repetition of the phrase "all options are on the table" as "hollow claims" used repeatedly against Iran.

Her remarks came after US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter claimed in an interview with the CNN earlier this month that the current framework for a deal with Iran did not take the military option off the table and that bunker busting bombs, meant to penetrate Iran's underground facilities, are "ready to go", adding that a deal with Iran would not be based on "trust" but on "verification".

On Wednesday, Araqchi stressed that removal of multilayer sanctions which Iran has consistently dubbed as 'unlawful and unjust' had been Iran's main demand throughout the negotiations.

"As we return to negotiations this week, we will seek explanation from the US team and greater clarity regarding all detailed aspects of sanction removal," he underlined.

After nine days of hard work in Lausanne, Switzerland, Iran and the G5+1 reached an understanding on April 2 which laid the ground for them to start drafting the final nuclear deal over Tehran's nuclear energy program ahead of a July 1 deadline.

Reading out a joint statement at a press conference with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Lausanne on April 2, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said according to the agreement, all the US, EU and UN Security Council sanctions against Iran would be lifted under the final deal.

"Our decision today that will be the agreed base for the final text of the Joint Plan of Action (the final deal) is of vital importance," Zarif said, reading the joint statement at the press conference.

"Now we can start drafting the final agreement and its annexations by relying on the solutions achieved in the last few days," he said after eight days of marathon talks with negotiators from the six world powers.

"As Iran continues its peaceful nuclear program, the degree and capacity of its enrichment and the size of its (enriched uranium) stockpile will be limited for specific periods and Natanz will be the only enrichment center in Iran. Nuclear enrichment R&D on centrifuge machines in Iran will be conducted on the basis of an agreed timeline and level."

Zarif said Fordo would turn from a nuclear enrichment plant to a nuclear, physics and technological center, where Iran will receive international cooperation.

The Iranian foreign minister also said the country's Arak Heavy Water Reactor would remain in place after being redesigned and renovated through international cooperation, stressing that the facility would remain a Heavy Water Reactor in nature, but would produce plutonium which wouldnt have the capability to be used for nuclear weapons production.

He said "there won't be any reprocessing at the Arak facility and its consumed nuclear fuel will be sent" abroad.

"A collection of arrangements have been agreed for supervising the implementation of the contents of the Joint Plan of Action (final deal) which will include Safeguard Code 3.1 and voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol (to the NPT); the IAEA will also use modern inspection technologies and will be given more agreed access to verify past and present issues," Zarif said.

He said Iran would partner in international nuclear projects, "including power plant and research reactor construction as well as nuclear safety and security".

Zarif stressed that all sanctions against Iran will be lifted.

He said all UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran would be annulled as they did not help the settlement of the nuclear standoff between Iran and the six world powers.

"The EU will terminate imposition of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions and the United States will also stop implementation of its nuclear-related financial and economic sanctions simultaneous with the implementation of Iran's major nuclear undertakings in a way that they are verified by the IAEA," Zarif said.

Zarif said the final deal would be endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution in a move to annul all the previous nuclear-related resolutions against Iran.

He said drafting of the deal would start soon to prepare the Joint Plan of Action by the July 1 deadline.

By Fars News Agency
https://theiranproject.com/vdcft0dycw6dvja.r7iw.html
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