Kerry to meet Iranian FM ahead of imminent sanctions relief

America’s top diplomat will meet with his Iranian counterpart and a top European Union official in Europe, the State Department announced Friday.

On Implementation Day – which will fall on whichever day Iran is certified to have complied with all tenets of the nuclear deal – Iran will suddenly gain access to billions of dollars in sanctions relief – but it will not get that relief until the IAEA has certified that it has met a number of key milestones, including the elimination of its two short-term pathways to developing a nuclear bomb.

“I believe its not just an important day for the economic activities in Iran, it is going to open the possibilities in Iran for economic engagement”, Zarif said.

“Implementation day is demonstration of how persistent, high-level engagement is a critical ingredient for successful policies between Iran and the worldwide community”, said Reza Marashi, of the National Iranian American Council, who followed the nuclear talks closely.

“All parties have continued making steady progress” toward implementing the nuclear deal, reached last July, which the State Department said “will ensure the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program”. After these discussions, I returned home even more convinced that we must reassure our allies in the region that we will not waver in our commitment to push back on Tehran and its destabilizing actions.

“In practice, it appears that your administration has allowed Iran to dictate the implementation of the nuclear deal by not taking punitive action for any of these transgressions”.

The Islamic Republic and world powers signed a nuclear agreement last July under which Tehran would scale back its uranium-enriching activities and submit to inspections in exchange for a rollback of sanctions.

Sunni Saudi Arabia, Iran’s other great regional rival, is also alarmed at the prospect of warmer US-Iran ties and of predominantly Shiite Iran, newly flush with oil revenues, increasing its influence.

And the European Union would, as well, end its banking sanctions, meaning that Iran would again be able to participate in the Swift system of electronic banking – something that is essential to participation in the global financial system.

Iran’s imminent return to the oil market has also contributed to the sharp slide in the price of crude to 12-year lows of under US$30 per barrel this week, putting Saudi Arabia’s public finances under strain. Sanctions have blocked Iran from at least $50 billion in frozen assets.