Araqchi, who is also Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said that the first installment of the $4.2bln blocked oil incomes was deposited in a bank account in Switzerland on February 1.
“As far as I know all necessary measures have been taken and transfers are underway. However, due to weekend holidays in Europe, the banking operations for transfer of the cash to Central Bank of Iran account will be conducted on Monday. So in our opinion there is no special problem,” the Iranian official said.
On November 24, Iran and the world powers sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides.
Then after several rounds of experts talks on how to enforce the agreement, Iran and the six major world powers finalized an agreement on ways to implement the deal.
On January 20, a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has halted its 20-percent enrichment activity under a ground-breaking deal struck with the six world powers in Geneva late in November, paving the way for the easing of some western sanctions against Tehran.
