- Title: Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi is contender for 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
- Date: 1st October 2016
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (FILE - FEBRUARY 23, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF HOTEL PRESIDENT WILSON CLOSE OF SIGN WHICH READS 'WILSON' SECURITY OUTSIDE THE HOTEL WINDOW OF HOTEL
- Embargoed: 16th October 2016 09:27
- Keywords: Ali Akbar Salehi Iran nuclear deal Nobel Peace prize sanctions
- Location: BUSHEHR, ISFAHAN, TEHRAN AND NATANZ, IRAN / DAMASCUS, SYRIA / GENEVA AND LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND / VIENNA, AUSTRIA
- City: BUSHEHR, ISFAHAN, TEHRAN AND NATANZ, IRAN / DAMASCUS, SYRIA / GENEVA AND LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND / VIENNA, AUSTRIA
- Country: Iran
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA006526VFWN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Iranian academic and diplomat Ali Akbar Salehi was the second most senior Iranian negotiator in nearly two years of talks between Tehran and world's six leading powers which led to a historic nuclear accord, known as the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA), in Vienna in July 2015.
He also served as foreign minister of Iran from 2010 to 2013.
Both Salehi and his counterpart, United States Secretary of Energy and nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz have received much of the credit for the deal's success to date.
The pair used their shared scientific backgrounds from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to reach agreements in spite the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Under the deal, which came into force in October 2015, world powers agreed to drop crippling multilateral economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for measures designed to ensure that it cannot develop nuclear weapons.
In turn, Iran agreed to slash its number of centrifuges, sensitive machines that purify uranium to levels at which it can be used as reactor fuel or, if enriched further, in atom bombs. Iran also agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium and remove the core of a reactor at Arak before filling it with concrete so as to ensure it cannot produce plutonium, which can also be used to make weapons.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday October 7, at 11:00 a.m. (0900 GMT).
The winner or winners will receive the prize worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.4 million U.S. dollars) on December 10, 2016. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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