Strasbourg, 16/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 16 January, a European source announced that the EU will suspend a series of economic sanctions on Iran on 20 January, as soon as the EU has confirmation of the entry into force in Iran of the agreement on its nuclear programme. “As soon as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmation of the implementation of this agreement by Iran, a green light expected at the end of the morning on 20 January, the EU will finalise the legal act lifting, as agreed, a series of sanctions, and will apply it the same day”, the source stated.
The foreign affairs ministers are thus due to adopt this suspension, without discussion, at their Council in Brussels on 20 January. Usually, measures enter into force the day after the decision, when they are published in the Official Journal. However, by doing this, the measures will be effective on 20 January - the date decided upon by the E3+3 (Germany, France, United Kingdom and China, United States, Russia) and Iran for the beginning of implementation of the first stage of the joint action plan of 24 November 2013 (see EUROPE 10970).
The suspension of the European sanctions is part of the measures contained in this plan. It concerns restrictive measures on, inter alia, the transport and insurance of Iranian exports of crude oil and the import of Iranian petro-chemical products - measures which will be suspended for six months until midnight on 20 July. The contracts which could be concluded by European operators will have to be executed during these six months and there will be no period of grace - except if Iran and the international community succeed in coming to an agreement in the meantime to prorogue or extend their interim agreement, the European source stated.
“The only exemption on the suspension of the sanctions foreseen in the plan is the repatriation of the amount agreed from the oil revenue that will take place in several payments”, another European source told EUROPE. (CG/transl.fl)