TEHRAN – Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) told Britain’s ITV in an interview late on Tuesday that Tehran is fully committed to upholding its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as nuclear deal, stressing that this will mainly depend upon how well Western parties will make good on their pledges.

“The government would like to fulfill its commitment as quickly as possible, but…at the same time we should be quite confident of what the other side is going to do,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

The AEOI spokesman also said Iranian people hope for the prompt lifting of sanctions stipulated in the JCPOA.

Kamalvandi also spoke on a wide range of topics from the debate within Iran about whether the deal was good for the country, and the importance of managing expectations inside Iran and internationally at the pace at which the highly technical and complex primary provisions of the accord would now be put into place.

He said the deal was the best that both sides could get, reiterating that it was the product of an intense negotiation process involving seven nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency over many years, starting as far back as 2003-5.

On the sensitive subject of the interviewing of Iran’s nuclear scientists and technicians, Kamalvandi said that this would happen but under specific and carefully agreed conditions.

He said that it would not be done under the “fabricated” pretext of searching for earlier programs which had “possible military dimensions”.

However, he was in no doubt about the wider and profound importance of the agreement reached in July.

He agreed it was a truly historic achievement for all sides, showing that countries even with the deepest divisions and mistrust can overcome their differences if they talk to each other rather than trying to use force.

MD/P