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President Hassan
Rouhani reaffirmed last week he expected sanctions to be lifted
by year-end, paving the way for the return of the biggest
economy to the global trading and financial system since the end
of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Iran has begun work to remove uranium enrichment centrifuges as
part of the landmark agreement, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of
the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran announced this week.
"Whatever the president says we will accomplish," Salehi told
Reuters after a speech on Iran's nuclear future to diplomats and
energy executives in Tokyo.
Under the July 14 accord with the United States and other
countries, Iran must dismantle large parts of its disputed
nuclear program before international sanctions, imposed over
suspicion it had bomb-making purposes, can be lifted.
Most analysts expect this process, which began on Oct. 18, to
take at least four to six months, but Rouhani has repeatedly
said he expects sanctions to be lifted in December.
"As far as the dismantling of the centrifuges ... we anticipate
no particular technical problems, because we have gone through
this routine a number of times and our experts and engineers are
well rehearsed," Salehi said during the speech.
On the issue of the Arak heavy water reactor, which must be
reconfigured so it can not produce weapons-grade plutonium,
Salehi said Iran was waiting for an official document from the
six powers.
"Until that document is produced we certainly will not take any
measures vis-à-vis the Arak heavy water research reactor,"
Salehi said.
(Reporting by Aaron Sheldrick)
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