In November last year, Iran signed a six-month Joint Plan of Action with P5Ư group - the US, UK, Russia, China, and France plus Germany - under which it agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear programme in return for the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and modest relief from sanctions.
“That will hold Iran's oil exports at around a million barrels per day, which is down about 60 per cent from where it began at the beginning of 2012 when we embarked on the effort to drive down Iran's oil sales, driving it down to about 2.5 million barrels today - a day to now about 1 million barrels per day,” the official explained when asked if the countries importing oil from Iran would have to continue to reduce it further to avoid American sanctions in this regard.
According to the official, once the IAEA has confirmed Iran is implementing its commitments, in return the P5Ư has committed to do a series of measures on the first day of the implementation.
The P5Ư will pause efforts to reduce Iran's exports of crude oil to the six countries still purchasing from Iran.
It will also suspend the implementation of sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports and Iran's imports of goods and services for its automotive manufacturing sector; and suspend sanctions on Iran's import and export of gold and other precious metals with significant limitations that prevent Iran from using its restricted assets overseas to pay for these purchases.
