WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States and Europe will lift sanctions against Iran after it was announced this weekend that the Islamic nation has met demands connected to a nuclear deal brokered last year.
Saturday’s announcement paves the way for the International Atomic Energy Administration to begin verifying and monitoring Iran’s nuclear-related commitments under the agreement, as requested by the U.N. Security Council and authorised by the IAEA Board.
Read the agreement, passed in 2015, that led to demands that Iran destroy certain nuclear components and materials in order for sanctions to be relieved.
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Saturday the he “hereby confirm[s] that the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran has fully implemented its required commitments as specified” in the agreement signed in 2015. He said certain sanctions would be lifted, as laid out in the agreement, because Iran had met demands placed on it by the international community.
Also Saturday, the White House announced that the U.S. is “officially implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a historic agreement to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful in nature. Before this agreement, Iran’s breakout time — or the time it would take for Iran to gather enough fissile material to build a weapon — was just two to three months. Today, because of the Iran deal, it would take them 12 months or more.”
Also, as part of the agreement, the United States will settle a debt claim with Iran that amounts to about $1.7 billion.
“The United States and Iran today have settled a long outstanding claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Hague,” Kerry said in another statement. “This specific claim was in the amount of a $400 million Trust Fund used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States prior to the break in diplomatic ties.” There is $1.3 billion in inters test included in this payment.
