US eases some sanctions on Iran, including oil

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The United States eased on Monday some sanctions on Iran, pausing efforts to reduce Iranian crude oil exports, as part of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that went into effect.

The Treasury Department said that now that Iran has fulfilled its initial nuclear commitments under the deal, "the administration has taken the necessary steps to pause efforts to further reduce Iranian crude oil exports."

This will allow the six current customers of Iranian oil to maintain their purchases at current reduced levels for the six-month duration of an interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, the Treasury Department said.

The United States also took steps to suspend sanctions on non-U.S. people engaged in transactions related to Iran's petrochemical exports, as well as certain trade in gold and precious metals with Iran and provision of goods and services to Iran's automotive sector.

In exchange for steps that Iran took to halt its most sensitive nuclear activity, the White House said the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union "will today follow through on our commitment to begin to provide the modest relief agreed to with Iran."

"At the same time, we will continue our aggressive enforcement of the sanctions measures that will remain in place throughout this six-month period," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Carney said the implementation of the Iran agreement "will begin today."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Iran deal will pave the way for negotiations on a long-term deal to contain Iran's nuclear program. Those negotiations, she said, "will be even more complex, and we go into it clear-eyed about the difficulties ahead."

Meanwhile, the European Union agreed to suspend some economic sanctions against Iran on Monday as part of a ground-breaking nuclear deal under which Tehran has scaled back its nuclear work, diplomats said.

The decision, which eases restrictions on trade in petrochemicals and precious metals and on the provision of insurance for oil shipments, among other measures, was expected to go into effect later in the day.

Earlier, a confidential UN atomic agency report obtained by Reuters stated that Iran has halted its most sensitive nuclear activity under a ground-breaking deal with world powers, paving the way for the easing of some Western sanctions.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency also said Iran had begun diluting its stockpile of uranium enriched to the fissile concentration of 20 percent - a level that took it closer to the capability of producing fuel for an atom bomb.

The IAEA report to member states said: "The Agency confirms that, as of 20 January 2014, Iran has ceased enriching uranium above 5 percent U-235 at the two cascades at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) and four cascades at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP) previously used for this purpose."

It was referring to Iran's two enrichment plants, at Natanz and Fordow. Cascades are interlinked networks of centrifuge machines that enrich uranium. Iranian state television earlier said Iran had suspended 20 percent enrichment at Natanz and that inspectors were heading to Fordow.

The IAEA report also listed other measures Iran had agreed to under the interim accord with the six world powers - the United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia.

Those included an undertaking that Iran would not build any more enrichment sites during the six-month agreement, a step meant to buy time for negotiations on a final settlement of Tehran's decade-old nuclear dispute with the six powers.

Enriched uranium can have both military and civilian purposes. Iran denies Western allegations that it has been seeking to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs, saying it wants only civilian atomic energy.

In turn, the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Monday she hopes a new round of negotiations with Iran on a definitive settlement to a decade-old nuclear standoff could start within a few weeks.

REUTERS

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