New Delhi, Jan 17: India is now free to resume normal trading ties with Iran that were disrupted by US and EU sanctions related to Tehran’s nuclear weapons program that were liftedon Saturday.
India will also be able to release payments its state-owned refineries owed to Tehran for crude oil purchases that were held up because of international sanctions, around $6.5 billion.
The sanctions were lifted after the International Atomic Energy Agency certified Saturday — Implementation Day — Iran had completed its part of the agreement with western powers.
Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the agreement was called, Iran has shipped out of country 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium, cutting its stockpile by 98%.
It has removed two-thirds of its centrifuges. And filled the core of core of Arak Heavy Water Research Reactor with concrete, eliminating its potential source of weapons-grade plutonium.
And, Iran has allowed IAEA inspectors, who will for the first be armed with modern safeguard technologies, unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chain Iran’s breakout time — time it would take to make a nuclear bomb — has been increased six fold as a result from two months to a year, a senior US official told reporters in DC.
The US and Iran also announced Saturday a swap of prisoners under which Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian would be headed home to freedom after 18 months in jail.
President Barack Obama signed executive orders lifting the sanctions inc luring those called “secondary”, which applied to non-US individuals and entities, companies.
Gone, effective Saturday, were sanctions on Iran’s energy and petrochemical sectors, those related to banking and financial institutions, underwriting services, insurance and re-insurance.
