Iran reportedly has completed the obligations required before sanctions could be lifted under the nuclear deal reached with world powers.
According to the state-sponsored Fars News Agency, Iran finished taking out the core of its heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak and filling it with cement on Monday, thus fulfilling its responsibility under the agreement reached over the summer with six countries, including the United States.
Citing an unnamed “informed source,” Fars reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to confirm the operation in the next few days.
“Following the IAEA approval, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini will issue a joint statement to declare that Iran has met its end of the bargain,” the source told FARS, adding, “And then it will be the six world powers’ turn to comply with their undertaking and remove the sanctions.”
The deal, vehemently opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Republicans in the U.S. Congress and many American Jewish organizations, lifts economic sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.
