Zarif, Kerry to discuss removal of Iran sanctions

ANKARA

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are preparing to meet in New York on Monday amid reports the P5+1 group has agreed to the complete removal of sanctions against Iran.

The meeting is the first time Zarif and Kerry will have met since April 2, when Iran and the P5+1 countries - U.S., Russia, U.K., France, China plus Germany - reached a framework deal in the Swiss city of Lausanne over Tehran's nuclear activity.

While Kerry maintains that sanctions on Iran would be removed gradually, Zarif has made clear Tehran wants an immediate and complete removal of them as soon as a final nuclear agreement is signed.

In a controversial move, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Sunday in a live televised interview that the P5+1 had agreed to a single-stage and complete removal of all sanctions against Iran immediately after a final deal is signed.

He said some uncertainties were also overcome last week in the last round of talks between the two sides held in the Austrian city of Vienna.

"The P5+1 group has accepted to remove all Iran's sanctions immediately after the comprehensive nuclear deal," Salehi was also quoted as saying by Iran's news agency IRNA on Sunday.

'Problems and conflicts'

Meanwhile, referring to a "compromise bill" adopted by the U.S. Congress, Zarif said on Sunday that internal politics in the U.S. should not be reflected in the nuclear negotiations.

Speaking at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York, Zarif was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars News Agency: "Internal problems and conflicts in the U.S. are not related to us and to the implementation of the agreement,"

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously approved the so-called "compromise bill' on April 14 that gives the U.S. Congress more power to review the final nuclear agreement with Iran after the Obama administration completes the negotiations.