TEHRAN - Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said on Thursday that nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has changed Iran’s “status” and “image” a lot.

“The JCPOA turned Iran’s nuclear program from a forbidden one into a legitimate program at the international level and removed the UN Security Council’s resolutions which called Iran a threat against the international peace and security. Today, Iran is one of the most important actors at the regional arena, especially in Syria,” ISNA quoted him as saying.

He noted that Iran is allowing more inspection of its nuclear activities in order to build trust.

Araqchi also said that the JCPOA removed all the obstacles to sell oil and economic interaction with the outside world.

However, he said, banking interaction has not been normalized yet which is because of issues that are not related to the nuclear deal.

“However, we have no deadlock in banking relations.”

Iran and the 5+1 group - the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany - finalized the text of the JCPOA in Vienna on July 2015.

The nuclear agreement went into effect in January 2016.

NA/PA