Russia's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday he expected a historic nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to be implemented in January, leading to sanctions against Tehran being lifted.<br />At talks in Vienna, senior officials from those major powers discussed with Iran a text they have prepared that would close the International Atomic Energy Agency's 12-year investigation of Tehran's past activities while ensuring the IAEA could still check for signs of suspicious behavior.<br />Under the deal, Iran must scale back its nuclear program, including its stockpile of low-enriched uranium - which it plans to do via a swap for non-enriched forms of uranium with Russia, to remove concerns it could be put to developing nuclear bombs.<br />That swap will be done before the end of the year, the Russian envoy to the IAEA, Vladimir Voronkov, told reporters.
