MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) – Iran affirmed its intentions to cooperate with an international deal aimed at scaling back its nuclear program at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
“We are ready to fulfill the agreements that were reached,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
The P5+1 group of world powers, which comprises the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, finalized a deal on January 12 to ease some economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for it temporarily freezing some aspects of its nuclear program.
Putin, in turn, praised Iran’s willingness to negotiate in reaching the accord, which was first announced in November.
Under the interim deal, Iran has pledged to halt its highest-level enrichment of uranium, reduce its uranium stockpiles and stop work on its plutonium reactor and the installation of new enrichment centrifuges. It has also agreed to grant access to UN inspectors to ensure compliance with the guidelines.
In exchange, Iran will get up to $7 billion in relief from economic sanctions that were stifling Iran’s economy, and a further $4 billion will be released from previously frozen oil assets.
The UN’s harshest economic sanctions are expected to remain in place until a permanent deal is reached to alleviate Western fears about Iran’s nuclear power program being a façade for building a nuclear bomb.
