BRUSSELS. Jan 13 (Interfax) - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton is satisfied with the results of the Geneva negotiations her deputy, Helga Schmid, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi held on January 9-10 and the upcoming implementation of the nuclear deal between the E3+3 group and Tehran.
"The E3/EU+3 and Iran will now start the implementation of the first step on 20 January 2014. We will ask the IAEA to undertake the necessary nuclear-related monitoring and verification activities," Ashton said in a statement released in Brussels on Sunday.
She said the outcomes of the Schmid-Araqchi negotiations had been approved by all countries involved in the negotiations.
"The E3/EU+3 and Iran have now reached a common understanding on the implementation modalities for a first step of six months of initial measures as set out in the Geneva Joint Plan of Action of 24 November 2013.
"The technical understandings on the concrete measures to be implemented by both sides had been worked out in three rounds of intensive technical experts' meetings of the E3/EU+3 and Iran, partly also involving the IAEA," Ashton said.