Iran to Meet President Rouhani’s Timetable on Termination of Sanctions: Salehi

Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Thursday that Tehran will fulfill its commitments under the July nuclear agreement with world powers in time to have sanctions lifted by the end of the year.

In late October, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stressed he expected “the unjust sanctions” imposed against the Islamic Republic of Iran to be scrapped by the end of 2015.

Iran has begun work to cut the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges as part of the landmark agreement, Iran’s nuclear chief Salehi announced this week.

“Whatever the president says we will accomplish,” Salehi told Reuters after delivering a speech on Iran’s nuclear future to diplomats and energy executives in Tokyo.

During his speech, Salehi referred to Tehran’s commitment to decommission a number of its centrifuges as per the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying the AEOI anticipates no particular technical problems, because it has gone through this routine a number of times and its experts are well rehearsed.

On the issue of the Arak heavy water reactor, which is to be reconfigured based on the nuclear deal, Salehi said Iran was waiting for an official document from the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

“Until that document is produced we certainly will not take any measures vis-a-vis the Arak heavy water research reactor,” Salehi said.

Tehran and the Group 5+1 (also known as P5+1 or E3+3) on July 14 reached a conclusion over the text of a comprehensive 159-page deal on Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

The nuclear deal, also known as the JCPOA, would terminate all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran after coming into force.

October 18, was the so-called “adoption day” for the deal, which came 90 days after the two sides concluded their intensive negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna.