Iran 'begins nuclear shutdown'

Iran's decision to halt higher-level enrichment is seen as a key step towards easing Western fears over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The West fears Iran seeks to build a nuclear bomb but the Islamic Republic insists the scheme is solely for peaceful purposes.

The shutdown follows an historic deal Iran reached with world powers in Geneva on November 24 that calls for an end to higher-level enrichment in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions.

Iranian state TV said authorities halted enrichment of uranium to 20% by disconnecting the cascades of centrifuges at the facility. That level is just steps away from bomb-making materials.

The broadcast said international inspectors were on hand to witness the stoppage before leaving to monitor the suspension of enrichment at Fordo, another site in central Iran.

The official IRNA news agency said Iran has also started to convert part of its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium to oxide, which can be used to produce nuclear fuel but is difficult to reconvert for weapons use.

Under the Geneva deal, Iran agreed to halt its 20% enrichment programme but continue enrichment up to 5%.

It also agreed to convert half of its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium to oxide and dilute the remaining half to 5% over a period of six months.

In addition to the enrichment measures, the six-month interim deal also commits Iran to opening its nuclear programme to greater UN inspections and providing more details on its nuclear activities and facilities.

Iran will also refrain from commissioning its under-construction 40 megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak.

The US, European Union and other world powers are studying the UN nuclear agency report, said US state department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.

She said the US would have further comment "after all parties have had the opportunity to review the report".

The White House said the US will begin easing economic sanctions on Iran after the developments.

Spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement that Washington will continue to aggressively enforce the sanctions that will remain in effect.

The European Union also announced it is suspending some sanctions following Tehran's implementation of its commitment.

In exchange for the nuclear curbs, Iran receives a halt to new sanctions and easing of existing ones.

Measures targeting petrochemical products, gold and other precious metals, the auto industry, passenger plane parts and services will be lifted immediately.

The Geneva deal allows Iran to continue exporting crude oil in its current level, which is reported to be about a million barrels a day.

In Brussels, foreign ministers from the 28 European Union members, gathered for one of their periodic consultations, were poised to suspend some sanctions for six months if UN inspectors report that Iran's uranium enrichment efforts have halted.

The ministers will hear a report from EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who chaired the Geneva negotiations that led to the agreement with Tehran. Miroslav Lajcak, the Slovak foreign minister, said as the meeting opened that "we are moving in a good direction. That means we are ready to lift sanctions".

The sanctions have weakened Iran's economy and an easing of the measures could provide relief to ordinary Iranians.

Senior officials in US president Barack Obama's administration have put the total relief figure at some $7bn of an estimated $100bn in Iranian assets in foreign banks.

Iran is to receive the first $550m instalment of $4.2bn of its assets blocked overseas on Febuary 1.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague emphasised that only some sanctions would be suspended once it is clear Iran had ceased enrichment.

"Of course other sanctions will be maintained. This is limited and proportionate sanctions relief," he said. "Then we will get to work at a very early stage, as early as next month, on the negotiation for a comprehensive deal to settle the Iranian nuclear issue."

Vice president Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran has a total of 196 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium and will convert half of it to oxide over a period of six months, 15 kilograms each month. Iran, he said, will dilute the remaining half to under 5% level within three months.

Iran's hard-liners have called the deal a "poisoned chalice", highlighting the difficult task president Hasan Rouhani faces in selling the accord to sceptics.

Hard-line media denounced the planned halt. The Vatan-e-Emrooz daily was printed in black instead of its usual colours, a sign of sorrow and mourning. It declared the deal a "nuclear holocaust" and called it a gift to Israel's prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

"Today, Netanyahu is the happiest person in the world," it said. However, the Israeli prime minister has made the opposite argument and says the deal gives Iran too much for too few concessions.

The interim Geneva accord will last for six months as Iran and the world powers negotiate a final deal. Foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters Tehran is ready to enter talks for a permanent accord as soon as the interim deal goes into force.