Iran making preparations for JCPOA implementation: AEOI chief

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the country has started preliminary work for the implementation of a nuclear agreement reached with the P5+1 group of countries over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“We have started the preliminary work” for reducing the number of Iran’s centrifuges, Salehi said in an interview with Kyodo news agency in Tokyo on Monday, IRNA reported.

This is Iran’s first practical step to implement the nuclear agreement – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – reached with the P5+1 group of countries in July, he added.

The Iranian nuclear chief noted that the JCPOA implementation includes reducing the number of centrifuges in nuclear sites such as Natanz facilities, in central Iran.

Iran needs time to fully implement the JCPOA, he said.

Salehi arrived in Tokyo on Sunday for a four-day visit to hold talks with Japanese officials about the expansion of nuclear cooperation, including in the safety field.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida issued a joint statement in Tehran in October about nuclear safety cooperation and implementation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

The Japanese foreign minister also agreed to help Iran implement the JCPOA reached between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries – the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany — in the Austrian capital of Vienna on July 14.

Under the JCPOA, limits will be put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all economic and financial bans against the Islamic Republic related to its nuclear program.