Germany said on Friday it understood the Iranian demand that all sanctions be lifted immediately once a final agreement on its disputed nuclear program is reached, but Tehran first had to implement the conditions of such a deal.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday he neither backed nor rejected an interim accord with six world but demanded all sanctions be lifted immediately should a final agreement be concluded by June 30.
"Of course we understand Iran's interest that the sanctions should be lifted as soon as possible, but so far we haven't talked about a timetable in terms of months and days," German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli said.
Sanctions would only be lifted if Iran fulfilled the conditions of the yet to be drafted final agreement and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed the implementation, she noted.
"Basically, it's in the hands of Iran on which day it will happen," she said.
The interim accord now had to lead into a final agreement and it was important to guaranteed that Iran's commitments were implemented in a verifiable manner, government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said.
Senior members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have said a final agreement could be "very advantageous" for both Germany and Iran.
German companies are hoping to win billions of euros worth of business from Iran after world powers reached a preliminary nuclear accord with Tehran, and Germany's engineering body has urged banks to revise their business policies toward Iran.
