Iran nuclear deal hard-earned, worth celebrating: China

Agreement a solid step on the way to final political and diplomatic settlement of Iranian nuclear issue, said the Chinese foreign minister

China today welcomed the Iranian nuclear deal as a "hard-earned" achievement and said the agreement leading to the lifting of sanctions against Tehran is "worth celebrating".

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the "Implementation Day" of the agreement was a solid step on the way to the final political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.

Wang's remarks came after the European Union (EU) and Iran yesterday jointly made an announcement of the "implementation day" of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the historic nuclear deal reached last July.

Also yesterday, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to lift sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear programme.

UN nuclear agency IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) said it has verified that Iran has done all the steps to address world concerns in scaling back its nuclear plan, including freezing much of its nuclear material production, which could be used to build nuclear bombs.

The achievement was "hard-earned" and "worth celebrating", state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying, who noted that China appreciates the work has done by Iran and the P5+1, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.

All sides have shown firm commitment to the JCPOA, according to Wang.

The minister urged all parties to continue to earnestly implement the deal in the coming decade to "create history again".

According to the JCPOA, all of the nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran will be removed if the country is proved to abide by the deal over the next ten years step-by- step.