Representatives of the P5+1 countries are expected to announce the timeline for the removal of Iranian sanctions in the coming days, as the nation is set to finalise ratification of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by Sunday October 18.

The JCPOA, a nuclear agreement reached last July between the leaders of Iran, the US, China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany, was approved today (October 14) by the country’s Guardian Council following a favourable vote in the Iranian parliament yesterday (October 13), with 161 members of parliament supporting the motion, compared to 59 opposed to it. According to government representatives, the bill should be approved by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, by the end of the week.

“This process should be finished before Sunday’s P5+1 meeting with Iran in Europe. Then, the representatives will announce publicly that all parties involved in the negotiations have done everything that needed to be done in their respective countries as stated in the JCPOA, and experts from all the parties will start to define one by one what steps from each side should take place,” said Mojtaba Khosrowtaj, first deputy minister in charge of trade at the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, in an exclusive interview with GTR today.

“I believe this is a matter of maximum two months time, and very soon, before the start of the new Christian year, everything will be ready for sanctions to be lifted completely as planned.”

He added that companies that do not rely on banks to do business with Iran – those working through a barter system for example – will be able to start operations immediately after the announcement, as many contracts have already been drafted under the condition that sanctions are indeed removed.

“I believe by the beginning of the next calendar year, all the draft agreements that companies are preparing will suddenly come to operation.”

Within banks, preparations are in full force to include Iran into correspondent networks once again, but implementation could take a couple of months after the lifting of sanctions, as financial institutions are weary of penalties and fines.