World powers prepare to lift sanctions against Iran

January 17, 2016 00:19

Diplomats, including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, have gathered in Vienna to announce that the Islamic Republic has fulfilled its commitments under July's nuclear accord with world powers, thereby ending a decade-long standoff with world powers over the country's nuclear programme.

"Implementation day" of the nuclear deal agreed last year marks the biggest re-entry of a former pariah state onto the global economic stage since the end of the Cold War, and a turning point in the hostility between Iran and the United States that has shaped the Middle East since 1979.

It is a defining initiative for both US President Barack Obama and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, both of whom faced strong opposition from hardliners at home in countries that have called each other "Great Satan" and part of the "axis of evil".

The sanctions have cut off a nation of nearly 80 million from the global financial system, drastically reduced the exports of a major oil producer and imposed severe economic hardship on ordinary Iranians. Most will be lifted immediately.

Even before the expected announcement, Iran's Mehr news agency reported on Saturday that executives from two of the world's largest oil companies, Shell and Total, had arrived in Tehran for talks with the state oil and tanker companies.

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