Russia hopes that Iran’s work with IAEA will not be politicized - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. Russia hopes that Iran’s work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will not be politicized and that all sides will do everything possible to complete it, Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. "The practical stage of implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program was launched on Janaury 16," Zakharova reminded. "Work on this issue is being done in the routine mode. Further development of Tehran’s nuclear program and international cooperation with Iran in the nuclear sphere should be carried out strictly in the framework of JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231," she added. "It is obvious that it will require some time to establish mechanisms, considering their complicated and unique nature, to adapt to each other and start working together at full capacity," the spokesperson noted. "The Russian side will actively contribute to this in the interests of ensuring security of JCPOA during the full course of its implementation at least in the next 10 years," she stressed. "We hope that all participants in the process will strictly observe their commitments so that the work continues and proves effective," she concluded. The focus is now being shifted to IAEA which "should confirm absence of undeclared nuclear material in Iran and its activities, and this will allow to lift existing restrictions on cooperation with Iran in several spheres, in particular, in the military-technical and nuclear spheres, before the deadline envisaged by UN Security Council Resolution 2231," Zakharova said. "Work in IAEA has started. In the framework of Tehran’s compliance with additional protocols on guarantees, we hope that it will not be politicized and that all sides will do everything possible to fulfill them," she noted. On January 16 international sanctions were lifted from Iran after the International Atomic Energy (IAEA) verified Tehran’s compliance with the nuclear deal. Agreement on Iran’s nuclear program On 14 July 2015, the P5+1 group of international mediators (five permanent members of UN Security Council - US, UK, Russia, China, France - and Germany) and Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran will not produce weapons-grade plutonium and limit its stockpile of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent to 300 kilograms for the next 15 years. Tehran also agreed to modernize its nuclear facilities and use them for exclusively peaceful purposes. Sanctions will be gradually removed from Iran. The arms embargo imposed by UN Security Council will be kept in place for five years, ban for supplying ballistic missile technologies to Iran - for eight years. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will monitor nuclear facilities in Iran for the next 25 years. If any points of the agreement are violated by Iran, sanctions against the country will be renewed. On July 20, the corresponding resolution on Iran’s nuclear program agreement was adopted by UN Security Council. Read more