EU ready to resume business with Iran on January 20 — sources

BRUSSELS — The EU will begin lifting sanctions against Iran on Monday, January 20, the minute it receives word that Tehran has begun implementing a deal to curb its nuclear programme.

EU foreign ministers will announce the move in Brussels as soon as inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, confirm that Iran has started work on a set of measures to reassure the international community over its nuclear drive, EU sources said Thursday.

The IAEA greenlight is expected in the morning and “a decision and regulation [on lifting the sanctions] will be published the same day.”

Under a hard-won deal agreed between Iran and world powers in November, Tehran over the next six months will halt enrichment of uranium over 5 per cent and dilute half of its stockpile of 20 per cent enriched uranium in exchange for sanctions relief.

The agreement will see the US unfreeze billions in Iranian assets while the EU notably suspends a 2012 ban on insuring and transporting Iranian crude oil that caused a more than 50 per cent drop in Tehran’s oil exports.

European insurers up until then had accounted for 90 per cent of coverage for deliveries of Iranian oil anywhere in the world.