World powers say `serious` about Iran nuclear deal: Report

Tehran: World powers have assured Tehran they are "serious" about a nuclear deal clinched in Geneva and are keen to take it forward, local media today reported Iran`s top diplomat as saying.

The reports said Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had received a call from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, chief negotiator for the so-called P5+1 powers, to stress they were committed to the deal. "Ms Ashton contacted me to reassure (us) that the P5+1 is serious about implementing its commitments and expressed hope of making progress in the work," the official IRNA news agency reported Zarif as saying. Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany -- reached a landmark deal in Geneva on November 24 on Tehran`s disputed nuclear drive which the West suspects has military dimensions, despite Tehran`s denial. Under the accord, which lasts for six months, Iran pledged to limit uranium enrichment to low fissile purities. It will also lower the purity of its stockpile of medium-enriched material, which is relatively easy to convert to weapons-grade, or convert it to another form. In exchange for the freeze, Iran will receive some USD 7 billion (5.2 billion euros) in sanctions relief and the powers promised to impose no new embargo measures for six months if Tehran sticks to the accord. Iran and the P5+1 powers are expected to meet at expert-level in Vienna on December 9 and 10 to pave the way for full implementation of the deal. Tehran`s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi, indicated that Iran`s six-month freeze of its nuclear programme would start by early January.