TEHERAN, January 12, 21:32 /ITAR-TASS/. The implementation of a joint action plan agreed by Iran and the Sextet of international mediators will begin from January 20, a spokeswoman for the Iranian foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Iran and the group of international mediators Five Plus One (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) have reached an agreement to begin the implementation of the action plan’s stage one from January 20, she said.
Later EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton confirmed this information.
The so-called joint action plan was adopted after many-day ministerial talks in Geneva on November 24, 2013. According to the document, which is intended for half a year, Tehran, in particular, pledges not to enrich uranium above five percent, not to advance in its activities at the fuel enrichment installation in Natanz, at Fordo facility, or reactor in Arak, not to create new places for enrichment of uranium, and allow large-scale inspections of its facilities by experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Western countries, for their part, agreed partially to slacken economic sanctions. The accords reached were referred to as the first step to be followed by an all-embracing agreement that would remove the world community’s worries about possible military uses of the Iranian nuclear programme, on the one hand, and would do away with economic sanctions hindering Iran’s economic development, on the other hand.