Norway welcomes historic Iran nuclear deal

Norway on Tuesday welcomed the historic Iran nuclear deal announced in Austria's capital Vienna after over a decade of lengthy negotiations.

"I welcome today's agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. This historic agreement will benefit the international community, the Middle East and Iran. It will also pave the way for closer political and economic contact with Iran," Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende said in a statement.

"It is important that today's agreement is implemented as effectively as possible," Brende said. "This is Iran's responsibility. Verifying compliance with the agreement, particularly with regard to concerns about its possible military dimensions, is vital."

He said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will play a crucial role in verifying Iran's compliance with its obligations under the agreement and Norway will continue to support its important work.

So far, Norway has provided more than 12 million kroner (1.5 million U.S. dollars) to support the IAEA's verification work under the framework agreement, according to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.

Norway has followed up all the UN Security Council resolutions on Iran's nuclear programme. The Nordic country has also followed the same line as the European Union and has aligned itself with all EU sanctions against Iran.

"Norway is prepared to lift sanctions in line with decisions made by the Security Council and the EU. However, until further notice the sanctions against Iran will be upheld in accordance with current national legislation," Brende said.

The comprehensive agreement was stricken earlier Tuesday between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States after over two weeks of bargaining talks in Vienna.

The text of the deal specifies key areas of the Iranian nuclear issue, including sanction relief and action plan, nuclear technology cooperation, the committee of the monitoring of the implementation, and capping of Iran's nuclear capacity, and draft of UN Security Council resolution.