It is my intention to visit Iran in the coming weeks,” Ashton said in a joint press conference with Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Hamad al-Sabah in Kuwait City on Monday.
Ashton’s remarks came after Iran and the six world powers agreed to start implementing the Geneva interim nuclear deal on January 20 and fulfill their undertakings simultaneously and on a single day.
Iran's senior negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi told the media on Sunday evening that "the (Geneva) deal will be put into effect on January 20”.
Araqchi said his negotiations with EU foreign policy deputy chief Helga Schmidt continued until a few hours ago. "Finally we finalized the agreement between us and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) on how to implement the first step of the Joint Plan of Action, and the two sides came to a single interpretation on how to put the agreement into effect."
He said a major part of the points pertaining to the implementation of the deal had been resolved during the experts meetings during the last several weeks, adding that he and Schmidt also worked out some solutions about the remaining points of difference.
Araqchi said the solutions were to be approved by the capitals of all the seven countries. "And today we were informed that the 6 states (party to the talks with Iran) have voiced their consent to these solutions and accepted them. In Iran the relevant bodies also studied, assessed and agreed with these solutions and this agreement was declared during the contact between Ms. Schmidt and me," he added.
Araqchi said according to the agreement, both Iran and the 6 world powers will fulfill their undertakings "on a single day" that would be January 20. "All the sanctions that are due to be suspended and have been mentioned in the (Geneva) agreement will be waived on January 20," he added.
"Also the moves that we have taken up to do with regard to the suspension of 20-percent enrichment and those measures that we have accepted not to do or halt their progress will stop on January 20," Araqchi continued.
Yet, he said there will remain two undertakings which would not be put completely into force on January 20, and explained that conversion of half of Iran's 20-percent-enriched uranium stockpile would be done in 6 stages, each of which might take around one month, and on the opposite side, the 5+1 will release USD4.2 billion of Iran's frozen assets in 8 stages with time intervals of less than a month.
Araqchi said once this first step starts on January 20, the seven countries would convene in less than a month to start working on the final step as mentioned in the Geneva interim deal towards a comprehensive settlement of the nuclear standoff.
Following the announcement on Sunday, US President Barrack Obama said he would veto the anti-Iran sanctions bill if Congress passes such legislation.
"Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully, and I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation," Obama said.
President Barack Obama also said the United States and other nations would begin to give Iran relief on economic sanctions as long as Iran lives up to its end of an agreement reached on Sunday to start implementing a nuclear deal.