Iran 'more likely' to start implementing JCPOA next week: N-chief

Iran will "more likely" start its measures pertaining to the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) next week, Head of Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Ali-Akbar Salehi said here on Sunday.

"The exact time for implementing the measures by Iran relating to JCPOA has not been decided so far, and it will be determined by the president Hassan Rouhani," Salehi told Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA).

On Sunday, Iran's senior nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that the EU and the US should officially and "legally" announce the lift of sanctions against the Islamic republic before the adoption of the JCPOA, according to state IRIB TV.

According to the nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers reached on July 14 in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Iran would improve the transparency of its nuclear plan, downsize its capacity for uranium enrichment and do changes in the structure of its heavy water reactor in exchange for international and Western sanctions relief.

Based on the agreement, the nuclear deal should have gone into effect on October 18.

Under the JCPOA, Iran would improve the transparency of its nuclear plan while freezing some of its nuclear activities in exchange for international and Western sanctions relief.