World powers and Iran are due to start implementing a landmark deal on Monday curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, amid hopes that it will pave the way for a broad settlement of a decade-old standoff and ease fears of a new Middle East war. If, as expected, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirms in the morning that Iran is meeting its end of the agreement, the European Union and the United States will later in the day suspend some economic sanctions in return. The mutual concessions are scheduled to last six months, during which time six powers – the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – aim to negotiate a final accord defining the permissible scope of Iran’s nuclear activity. Western governments want such an agreement to lay to rest their concerns that Iran could produce an atomic weapon. Tehran is seeking an end to […]