The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is pulling out all the stops to speed up the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal to bring home tangible relief from sanctions before parliamentary elections in February.
The moderate president, who is facing his first major public vote of confidence two years after assuming power, wants Iranians to feel the impact of his diplomacy as early as this month.
Iran has already started to roll back its nuclear programme, including unplugging thousands of centrifuges, as required under the Vienna nuclear agreement. But the lifting of sanctions will only come into effect after “implementation day”, an unknown date when the UN nuclear watchdog verifies that Tehran has taken all other necessary steps.
Iran is pushing to fulfil its obligations as early as possible and the US secretary of state, John Kerry, said on Thursday that Tehran could be only days away from doing so, meaning that sanctions could be lifted later this month.
Rouhani has been boosted domestically after fulfilling his most important campaign promise, which was to bring an end to a decade-long nuclear saga. However, hardliners, wary of his growing influence, are determined to make sure he will have a tough time in the remaining two years of his presidency.
“Mr Rouhani came to power on a mainly economic platform, promising in a famous quote centrifuges will turn and so will the wheels of people’s livelihoods,” said Hossein Rassam, an Iranian expert and former political adviser to the Foreign Office.
“More than two years have passed. Centrifuges are turning more slowly now, and so are the wheels of the economy, while people have high expectations about the fruits of the sanctions relief,” he said. “Mr Rouhani encouraged those expectations and inadvertently created a state of suspense, which is not helping an economy stuck in recession and unable to create jobs.”
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