Iran President says deal reached over removal of most sanctions

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said world powers have accepted that major sanctions on his country - including those on oil, banking and shipping - will be lifted as part of an agreement with the US to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

Rouhani said negotiators in Vienna, where Iran and the US have engaged in indirect talks to restore the troubled accord, had taken a “major step” and that “the main agreement has been made,” according to comments on Iranian state TV on Thursday.

Diplomats, led by the European Union, are still discussing “details and finer points,” he said. Some items need to be ironed-out “for us to reach a final agreement.”

Negotiators ended their latest round of talks on Wednesday on a broadly positive note after the EU and Russia said they were close to finalising a document outlining how the US would return to the accord, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, and how Iran would scale-back its nuclear programme.

Iran is already preparing to ramp up oil exports in anticipation of sanctions being eased.

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