Sweden: Iran-world powers' permanent nuclear deal possible

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he is hopeful about the successful implementation of the Geneva nuclear accord recently struck by Tehran and the Group5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) and attainment of a permanent agreement over Iran's future nuclear activities. Addressing a round-table discussion on Iran at the high-profile Munich Security Conference on Sunday, Bildt said, while a six-month time frame for a final deal was ambitious, it was doable if all sides in the nuclear talks showed goodwill. There is a window of opportunity that needs to be used, the Swedish minister said ahead of his upcoming visit to Iran. Pointing to a phase of accelerating diplomatic activities on the Iranian nuclear issue, Bildt urged all parties involved in the negotiation process to keep the momentum going. Bildt made clear that once the Iranian nuclear issue has been resolved, all western sanctions had to be lifted. Sweden's top diplomat did also acknowledge though that both sides had yet to overcome a gulf of mistrust. Meanwhile, Bildt reaffirmed Iran's right to have peaceful civilian nuclear program. On November 24, Iran and the world powers sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides. Then after several rounds of experts talks on how to enforce the agreement, Iran and the six major world powers finalized an agreement on ways to implement the deal. On January 20, a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has halted its 20-percent enrichment activity under a ground-breaking deal struck with the six world powers in Geneva late in November. A few hours later the US and the EU removed part of their sanctions against Tehran.