Iran: All sanctions to be annulled today

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says “all oppressive sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic will be annulled today.”

“Today, with the submission of the report by the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the JCPOA will in fact become implemented, and after that, a joint statement… will be read out to announce the implementation,” Zarif told reporters on arrival in Vienna in reference to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries last year.

“We think that the implementation of the JCPOA is not only a very good opportunity for the Iranian people through which all the oppressive Security Council sanctions, all the resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors will end and officially be annulled, but all the oppressive sanctions that have been imposed over the nuclear issue against the Islamic Republic will God willing be annulled today… and this is a very good day for the Iranian people,” Zarif said.

“But, besides, we believe that this is a very good day for the region; our region will be relieved of the shadow of an unnecessary conflict that could have caused worry for this region,” he said.

“This is also a good day for the world,” the Iranian foreign minister said, adding, “Today is a day when we prove to the world that threats, sanctions, intimidation, pressure don’t work; respect works.”

“Through respect, through dialog, through negotiations, we can in fact reach mutually-acceptable solutions, implement mutually-acceptable solutions, prove that the nay-sayers were always wrong, and therefore move towards a world in which diplomacy – not force, not pressure – will prevail,” Zarif said.

After arrival in Vienna, Zarif held a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini about the JCPOA.

The Iranian foreign minister will also meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany finalized the JCPOA in the Vienna, on July 14.

Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The EU had already expressed preparedness to lift its economic sanctions against Iran as soon as the UN nuclear agency verifies Tehran’s compliance.

Diplomatic sources said on Friday that the 28-member bloc alongside the US and UN can end their sanctions against Tehran on the “Implementation Day." 

On Friday, US President Barack Obama lifted a decades-old ban on the export of civilian passenger aircraft to Iran, officials said in Washington.  

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