Nuclear Politics

Europe Lifts Sanctions After Iran Complies With Terms Of Nuclear Deal

By David Dalton
18 January 2016

18 Jan (NucNet): The European Council has lifted all nuclear-related economic and financial EU sanctions against Iran following verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency on 16 January 2016 that Iran has implemented nuclear-related measures set out in an agreement agreed last year, the Council said in a statement. The IAEA said Iran had fulfilled its obligations under the agreement, effectively curbing its ability to develop a nuclear weapon. IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano said Iran’s compliance with the agreement – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – paves the way for the IAEA to begin verifying and monitoring Iran’s nuclear-related commitments. In a statement Mr Amano said he had held “very constructive and positive” talks today with Ali Akbar Saleh, chairman of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran. “We have agreed to further strengthen the cooperation between Iran and the IAEA,” Mr Amano said. In July 2015, China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US and the European Union agreed the plan of action aimed at ensuring the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme. The IAEA said in a statement it had installed a device at the Natanz fuel enrichment plant known as an online enrichment monitor to verify that Iran keeps its level of uranium enrichment at up to 3.67 percent as agreed under the plan of action. The device allows the IAEA to measure the amount of uranium-235 and the total amount of uranium in the gas centrifuge facility in Natanz, and to calculate the enrichment level. It enables around-the-clock monitoring of the facility, which could previously only be verified by inspectors on-site taking samples and indirectly through the collection of environmental samples, the IAEA said. Iran has one commercial nuclear unit, the 915-megawatt Russia-supplied Bushehr-1, but has signed an agreement with Russia for up to eight more. Iran’s media has also reported that China will build two reactors in Iran.

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