Kerry also said Iran was in the process of disabling the central vessel, or calandria, for its heavy water reactor at Arak that would have been able to produce plutonium, a pathway to nuclear weapons.
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Secretary of State John Kerry says that Iran will likely be in compliance with a landmark nuclear deal within days, and other officials say it could be as early as this weekend.
“Implementation day, which is the day on which Iran proves that it has sufficiently downsized its nuclear program and can begin to receive sanctions relief, is going to take place very soon, likely within the next coming days”, America’s top diplomat said during a speech at National Defense University. The U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity made clear that neither had occurred. For the US that means suspension of nuclear-related sanctions on Iranian oil, banking and commerce.
Under the deal Iran has reduced the number of its centrifuges – fast spinning machines that enrich uranium – and transferred the bulk of its low-enriched uranium stockpile to Russian Federation.
Araqchi said on Wednesday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s representative for foreign affairs, would issue a joint statement on Saturday or Sunday on the implementation of the deal and the lifting of EU, U.S. and United Nations sanctions.
While Iran accomplished most of the biggest tasks in recent weeks, several technical hiccups remained.
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Reports emerged on Monday that Iran had removed the core at Arak, but a top official later denied this was the case, insisting that Tehran was still working on a deal to redesign the reactor with the help of China and the United States.
