TEHRAN - Iran’s Foreign
Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian says there is no way for the United States to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement without the removal of sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation after Washington’s withdrawal from the multilateral agreement.
“In the course of the previous six rounds of talks, it became clear to Iran that the United States did not realize that there is no way for it to return to the JCPOA (nuclear deal) without removing all the sanctions it imposed on the Iranian people in the period after Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal,” Amir-Abdollahian said in an article published by Russia’s daily Kommersant on Monday.
In his article, Amir-Abdollahian complained that the current situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, emerged because the U.S. has spared no effort to kill the deal over the past four years.
On the contrary, he added, Iran “has been doing its utmost to keep this agreement alive.”
Following a year of strategic patience, Iran decided to let go of some of the restrictions on its nuclear energy program, resorting to its legal rights under the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of a non-performance by the other side.
The U.S. administration of President Joe Biden had voiced willingness to compensate for Trump’s mistake and rejoin the deal, but it has retained the sanctions as leverage.
After a five-month hiatus, envoys from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries — Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — began on November 29 the seventh round of talks in the Austrian capital Vienna to resurrect the JCPOA.
The intensive negotiations ended on December 3 after the diplomats returned to their capitals for more consultations.
During the discussions, Iran submitted two proposed drafts to the other parties concerning the removal of sanctions and Tehran’s nuclear commitments, saying a third draft is on the way as well.

Vienna Talks on JCPOA to Resume Thursday

Iran and the five other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal are set to start a new round of negotiations on Thursday, December 9, in the Austrian capital of Vienna, aimed at securing a removal of the sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Iran after its withdrawal from the accord and reviving the embattled international document.
Iran’s chief negotiator to the Vienna talks Ali Bagheri-Kani on Tuesday announced the finalized date and said Tehran’s two proposed drafts put forward during the seventh round of talks with the other signatories to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), can seriously advance the negotiation process.
He added that he “saw it necessary to hold consultations with Russian officials so that we will continue the negotiations on Thursday in a progressive and constructive atmosphere.”
Bagheri-Kani, who serves as Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, explained that the two proposed drafts were nothing new and were in compliance with the texts that had earlier been agreed upon by both sides during the previous six rounds of the talks, but with some amendments and additions meant to make up for the shortcomings.
The senior Iranian diplomat said the country had held similar consultations with Chinese officials as well since the beginning of the seventh round of the Vienna talks.