Iran FM says nuclear deal to be implemented

Iran is expecting worldwide sanctions to be lifted on Saturday, with an announcement by the United Nations nuclear agency that Tehran has complied with a deal to scale back its nuclear programme.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Saturday is expected to release a report on whether Iran has completed its commitments under an international nuclear deal reached past year. “What is more important is that it’s an extremely important day for diplomacy”.

Iranian state TV on Saturday announced that four prisoners holding dual Iranian-American citizenship were released, without elaborating.

Iran has various obligations under the nuclear agreement. His aides negotiated a deal in late 2014 that led to Cuba’s release of former USA aid contractor Alan Gross and a US intelligence operative while Washington freed three Cuban spies.

He says “authorities at the top had agreed to free the four Iranian-Americans only after the Iranian prisoners land in Tehran”.

“Today is a good day for the Iranian people as sanctions will be lifted today”, the ISNA agency quoted him as saying.

Earlier this week, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi said that his country’s foreign minister and the European Union’s high commissioner for foreign affairs would hold a news conference within two days of the IAEA’s report, with the intention of addressing immediate sanctions removal.

Iran has said that it never meant to build nuclear weapons and that its program is for peaceful energy and medical research purposes. While the Iranians have aggressively courted foreign companies and investors in recent months, it is unclear how quickly contracts can be finalised.

But opponents remain, such as some US Republicans who say it does not do enough to ensure Iran can not develop a bomb.

Unlike many other large oil producers, who have long exploited their supplies, causing production to become more hard and expensive, the relative lack of investment should give Iran a lot of breathing room, even during these turbulent economic times. US State Department officials declined immediate comment. USA officials have said that the new financial penalties remain on the table and are likely to be revisited soon. Tehran will be getting far less income than it anticipated when the negotiations took hold in late 2013, making it hard for the government to deliver the jobs and economic boom Iranians have been told will ensue.

Iran’s banking sector, previously cut off from the outside world, will gain access to Swift services, which facilitate worldwide transactions.

He also expects that lifting of the sanctions will help other, less-talked-about, Iranian sectors such as metal production to boom.