Lithuania’s foreign ministry welcomes Iran nuclear deal

The minister added, however, that its implementation was key and it would show whether a real breakthrough was reached.

According to Linkevičius, Lithuania will support the deal during a vote at the United Nations Security Council where the Baltic county is a non-permanent member until the end of this year.

“The agreement is long-awaited, all the more so that the countries have held negotiations for around 12 years. There have been various intermediate decisions and this one, I would like to stress, is not the final yet. It will not come into force immediately and will probably be very thoroughly analyzed, first of all, by the US Congress,” Linkevičius told BNS.

“There are many ‘ifs’ but, with no doubt, the whole world is waiting for good news on the issue and we welcome the ministers of all countries involved as well as the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. We now have to wait for the implementation phase to see whether we can really say that we have reached a breakthrough,” the minister said.

The agreement will become official after the UN Security Council will adopt a resolution later this month, with the deal as its annex, Linkevičius noted, adding that Lithuania “with no doubt, will vote in favour” of the resolution.

Under specifics of this agreement Iran will restrict its nuclear capacity in exchange for the phase-out of nuclear-related sanctions imposed by the UN, the EU and the US, subject to Iran‘s steps to implement the deal. Iran also has agreed to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor the provisions of the agreement.

International community will have to remain vigilant and in a strong position to verify that Iran upholds its pledge not to produce nuclear weapons and to convert its nuclear capacity into areas of research, Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.