Iran: NPT protocol, confidence-building measure

The Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Tehran has decided to apply the Additional Protocol as a confidence-building gesture under the country’s nuclear deal with six world powers.

“As a confidence-building measure, Iran provisionally implements the Additional Protocol [to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)],” Reza Najafi said on Sunday.

He added that Sunday, 90 days after the passing of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, is the “Adoption Day” of Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers, according to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Najafi’s remarks came after the IAEA announced in a statement that Iran had notified the agency that Tehran “would provisionally apply the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement, pending its ratification by the Majlis (Parliament).”

Meanwhile, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran would work to fulfill its commitments at the Natanz and Fordo nuclear sites, as early as this week.

Earlier in the day, US President Barack Obama ordered Washington to “take all appropriate additional measures to ensure the prompt and effective implementation of the US commitments set forth in the JCPOA.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also said in a joint statement that the EU had “adopted the legislative framework for the lifting of all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against Iran.”

“It will take effect on Implementation Day, simultaneously with the IAEA-verified implementation of agreed nuclear measures by Iran,” the statement said.

In July, Iran and the IAEA signed a road map for “the clarification of past and present issues” regarding Tehran’s nuclear program in the Austrian capital Vienna. The IAEA’s final report on Iran is due by December 15.

The agreement was reached on the same day Iran and the P5+1 – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – finalized JCPOA in Vienna.