WASHINGTON — As Iran’s Guardian Council gave final approval to proceed Oct. 14, the Iran nuclear deal is finally set to enter its adoption phase next week.

But even as Iran shows determination to move forward with implementing the nuclear deal, its leadership is also showing signs of wariness about moving to expand contacts with the United States, ruling out bilateral talks with the Americans on regional issues for now, even as it reaches out to Europe on Syria and has accepted European offers to mediate and try to facilitate a dialogue between Iran and the Sunni Gulf states, as yet rebuffed by Saudi Arabia.

Following the formal “adoption day” of the landmark Iran nuclear deal on Oct. 18, diplomats from Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the European Union will convene the first official meeting in Vienna of the eight-member Joint Commission they comprise, to oversee implementation of the deal, US and Iranian officials said. Iran expects that it will have completed all of the steps it has agreed to take to get sanctions waived or lifted — including reducing the number of centrifuges it is using to enrich uranium to 5,000, reducing its stockpile of lower enriched uranium by 98% to 300 kilograms and removing the core of its uncompleted Arak plutonium reactor — by the end of the year, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told Iranian journalists Oct. 15. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Oct. 15 that Iran had complied with answering the questions and providing the access it needed to issue a report on the suspected past military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program by Dec. 15.

Iran reaches out to Europe on Syria as it puts the brakes on expanding US contacts