One week into the marathon talks underway in Vienna between the the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) and Iran, speculation has started to emerge as to what a comprehensive agreement on the long-outstanding nuclear issue would entail in terms of obligations and concessions for Tehran, with the issue of sanctions being one of the sticking points in the negotiations.

In the past days, the two sides seem to have agreed that, in exchange for verifiable curbs on the Iranian nuclear program, phased, comprehensive sanctions relief would be part of a long-term agreement. The deal would progressively unwind the complex and multilayered legislation imposed against Tehran, comprising UN Security Council resolutions as well as US and EU sanctions. While details on the order and nature of the sanctions relief measures are still unknown and subject to technical discussions, the Iranian authorities would like to see the sanctions lifted sooner rather than later, considering the tremendous impact they had on the Iranian economy.

The EU imposed its first series of sanctions — defined as “restrictive measures” in EU jargon — against Tehran in 2007, and up until 2010 limited its efforts to simply implementing the Security Council resolutions within the EU territory via travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities linked to Iran’s nuclear program.

Since 2010, the EU has imposed a heavier type of sanctions against Iran that was not based on and went beyond the scope of the Security Council resolutions, so are referred to as autonomous or unilateral measures. These sanctions targeted the country’s energy and financial sector to an unprecedented degree, especially given the extent of economic exchanges taking place up until then between Iran and most European countries.