BRUSSELS (EJP)—European Union Foreign Minister have suspended certain EU restrictive measures against Iran, following confirmation of Iran’s compliance with nuclear measures in the agreed joint action plan, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton said Monday after a meeting in Brussels.
‘’The EU aims to start negotiations about a comprehensive solution with Iran in February,’’ Ashton said.
She added that ‘’this is an important day in our pursuit of ensuring that Iran has an exclusively peaceful nuclear programme”.
The decision to lift sanctions – which began in 2006 – follows the ‘’action plan’’agreed by the so-called EU+3 or P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the United States) and Iran on 24 November in Geneva laid out a series of measures to address global concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme.
As a first step, it required both sides to implement a series of voluntary measures for a period of six months.
Iran committed to addressing the most pressing concerns about their nuclear activities, including suspending nuclear enrichment above 5%, freezing enrichment capacity, significantly reducing their stockpile of enriched uranium and allowing international nuclear inspectors better access to key Iranian nuclear sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed during the Council of Foreign Minister meeting that Iran has started to implement these measures.
‘’As a result, the Council suspended EU sanctions against Iran for crude oil, petrochemicals, gold and precious metals. This will also allow the provision of transportation and insurance services to countries importing Iranian oil. The suspension will last for a period of six months,’’ the EU said in a statement.
Catherine Ashton recently announced that she plans to visit Iran within weeks, after Tehran invited her to the country.
“I read with interest the invitation to visit Tehran and it is my intention to do so in the course of the next weeks,” Ashton told journalists during a visit in Kuwait.