Tehran expects the European Union to remove anti-Iran sanctions immediately after the nuclear deal implementation day, Iranian ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the full implementation of the nuclear deal with six world powers would take place no later than the weekend.
"We are at the stage of lifting the sanctions from Iran, it is expected that just in the next few days, tomorrow or early next week, it will be officially announced of the implementation of the agreement, which was signed by Iran and the 'six.' At the end of this week or at the beginning of the next, EU may declare the realization of the sanctions lifting," Sanaei told the Gaidar Forum in Moscow.
In July, Iran and the six world powers, namely Russia, China, the United States, France the United Kingdom and Germany, signed a historic deal on Tehran's nuclear program. The deal guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for removal of sanctions.
The 'incident' with the US Navy just a few days ago was likely a baited trap for Iran to give the US/EU an excuse to delay implementation or reversal of the lifting of these sanctions, despite being utterly unconnected. The Iranians handled it deftly, with complete professionalism and restraint.
Things could have spun out of control quickly if cooler heads had not prevailed on the Iranian side. Glad to see Persian wisdom still rules a once, and hopefully soon to be again, great power. :-)