Pretoria - South Africa has hailed the nuclear deal reached between Iran and six world powers in Vienna on Tuesday, saying the deal is victory of diplomacy and dialogue.
“This historic agreement is testament to the success of a negotiated and diplomatic solution, to which South Africa had steadfastly and continuously lent its full support,” International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane told a media briefing on international developments on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Iran and six world powers - China, the United States, France, Britain, Russia and Germany - reached a deal stipulating to lift a 13-year sanctions and embargo on Tehran, in exchange for limiting its nuclear program.
The agreement is the fruit of 21 months of negotiation, as all the international community has welcomed the deal, except Israel which qualifies it as "historic mistake."
The comprehensive agreement was clinched after more than two weeks of tough bargaining in the Austrian capital, Austria, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has its headquarters.
The text of the deal is around 100 pages with five annexes, which specify key areas of the Iranian nuclear issue, including sanctions relief and action plan, nuclear technology co-operation, the committee of the monitoring of the implementation, capping of Iran's nuclear capacity, and draft of UN Security Council resolution.
Iran and the IAEA have agreed to co-operate to resolve Tehran's past suspicious nuclear activities, including the Parchin issue, a suspicious military site in Iran, the agency said in an email on Tuesday.
Under the road-map, Iran will address the IAEA's concern over the so-called possible military dimensions of its nuclear programme, including the resolution of the Parchin issue, a military site whereh the IAEA suspects Iran might have carried out explosive tests relevant to a nuclear weapon plan.
Minister Nkoana-Mashabane also welcomed the announcement by the IAEA and Iran had concluded a roadmap to resolve outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme by the end of 2015.
“In association with the position of the Non-Alignment Movement , we welcome the lifting of unilaterally imposed sanctions on Iran and further reiterate support for Iran’ inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” said the Minister.
Pretoria, she said, looked forward to the resumption of normal bilateral economic and trade rations with Iran once the sanctions have been lifted.
Minister Nkoana-Mashabane hoped that once the sanctions have been lifted - the trade relations between the two countries will rise to greater heights in various areas such as education, health, investment, mining, transport, agriculture, science and technology, and energy.
"Of course if sanctions are lifted that's a win-win situation and South Africa will also benefit from that," Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said in response to a question about resuming oil imports from Iran.
South Africa has always spoken out against the language of threats and coercion, including the unilateral sanctions that have been unfairly and unjustly imposed to single out Iran.
"Pretoria was of the view that these sanctions were not only sanctions on Iran but sanctions on all of us," the Minister said.
Iran is the largest supplier of crude oil producer however, South Africa was obliged to halt its imports of Iranian oil as of June 2012 as a result of sanctions. - SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
