Kerry says Iran "days away" from implementing nuclear deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran may be “days away” from complying with last summer’s nuclear deal, U.S. secretary of state John Kerry has said, a step that would compel the U.S. and other western nations to immediately suspend many sanctions on the Islamic republic, the Guardian reports.

The landmark could usher in a new phase in the budding U.S.-Iranian rapprochement.

Kerry told reporters he spoke earlier in the day with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who made it clear that the Iranians intend to satisfy their nuclear obligations “as rapidly as possible”. The Obama administration, Kerry said, is “prepared to move on that day” on the nuclear-related sanctions on Iranian oil, banking and commerce that it promised to end as part of the July agreement.

“We are days away from implementation if all goes well,” Kerry said, according to the Guardian.

Speaking just hours after a House committee advanced a bill that could interfere with the administration’s plans, Kerry said the nuclear accord already has delivered significant results. Iran shipped out most of its stockpile of enriched uranium overseas last week, extending the time period it would need to develop a bomb to about nine months, from as little as the two months it needed before the deal.

“Iran literally shipped out its capacity, currently, to build a nuclear weapon,” he said, adding that “in the next days, with the completion of their tasks, we will meet our target of being more than a year of breakout time.”

The House foreign affairs committee’s legislation would give Congress greater oversight over the pact, but it also would prevent the U.S. from removing sanctions on some Iranian individuals and companies unless Barack Obama certifies their noninvolvement in ballistic missiles work or terrorist activities, the Guardian says.

Kerry said the administration was committed to address the question of Iran’s missile and other activities, including its detention of several American citizens. Still, he said nothing about new sanctions or other penalties toward Tehran, which is accused by US intelligence of conducting at least two ballistic missile tests in recent months, in violation of UN security council resolutions.