VIENNA (SW): Well over a decade of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program have finally reached a conclusion, western diplomats confirmed in Vienna, Australia on Tuesday.
Iran and western powers have been wrangling over the disputed nuclear program for years as Tehran insisted it was pursuing a peaceful program while western capitals feared Iran was aiming to obtain nuclear weapons.
The agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), will, according to Iranian officials, be presented to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), which will adopt a resolution in seven to 10 days making the JCPOA an official document.
Negotiations between Iran and six world powers – the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany – began in 2006.
Jawad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister called the agreement "historic", saying it opened a "new chapter of hope".
The agreement reportedly gives UN nuclear inspectors extensive but not automatic access to sites within Iran.
Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief said the deal was "a sign of hope for the entire world".
The UNSC sanctions against the Islamic Republic, including all economic and financial bans, will be lifted at once under a mutually agreed framework and through a new UN resolution, Iran’s state-owned independent Press Tv reported.
Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told reporters in Vienna that the agreement a "significant step forward", saying it would allow the agency to "make an assessment of issues relating to possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme by the end of 2015".
According to Press TV report nuclear-related economic and financial restrictions imposed by the United States and the European Union (EU) targeting the Iranian banking, financial, oil, gas, petrochemical, trade, insurance and transport sectors will at once be annulled with the beginning of the implementation of the agreement.
Additionally, tens of billions of dollars in Iranian revenue frozen in foreign banks will be unblocked.
Iran has accepted that sanctions could be restored in 65 days if it violates the deal, Reuters cited diplomats as saying
Following reports of a deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying that Iran would receive a "sure path to nuclear weapons" and "a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Oil prices tumbled more than $1 on Tuesday after Iran and six global powers reached the landmark nuclear deal.
Analysts say it would take Iran many months to fully ramp up its export capacity following any easing of sanctions. But even a modest initial increase would be enough to pull international oil prices down further as the market is already producing around 2.5 million barrels per day above demand.
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