Key takeaways

• On 14 July 2015, Iran, the EU and the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Russia and Germany) reached a historic deal for Iran to wind down its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. This agreement has been memorialized in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the “JCPOA”).
• The JCPOA does not provide any immediate sanctions relief to Iran; instead, US and European Union sanctions will be withdrawn in a phased manner, based on Iran achieving certain milestones.
• The first phase of sanctions relief will take place when the International Atomic Energy Agency (the “IAEA”) verifies that Iran has completed certain decommissioning steps relating to its nuclear weapon programme.
• Further sanctions relief will follow based on the effluxion of time or the IAEA providing further confirmations about Iran’s nuclear programme.
• Although it is likely to take a number of months before the first stage of EU and US sanctions relief is implemented, the JCPOA is a landmark step towards reopening the Iranian market for Western businesses.