TEHRAN -- Iran’s top security
official said Wednesday the country’s main strategy is to create mechanisms to neutralize sanctions in parallel with its efforts to have the illegal measures removed.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani made the remarks in a special meeting with lawmakers on the latest developments in the Vienna talks between Tehran and other parties to the 2015 Iran deal.
The MPs were also briefed on progress made during the negotiations under the administration of President Ebrahim Raeisi, existing challenges in Vienna, and the main priorities on the agenda of the Iranian delegation.
During the meeting, Shamkhani stressed the need for a quick resolution of the remaining issues, over which no consensus has been reached yet.
“The bitter experience of the U.S.’s non-commitment and the European inaction has made it inevitable to meet the requirements for the conclusion of a credible, balanced and lasting agreement,” he added.
“In addition to efforts toward sanctions removal, the country’s major strategy is to focus on creating mechanisms in order to render the sanctions tool ineffective. Fortunately, very good measures have been taken in this regard,” Shamkhani said.
The lawmakers said Iran had managed weather crises caused by the oppressive sanctions targeting the economy and people’s livelihood.
They urged the Iranian negotiating team to continue its endeavors to uphold the nation’s rights stipulated in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Washington left the JCPOA in 2018 and began to implement what it called the “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, depriving the country of the economic benefits of the agreement, including the removal of sanctions, for which Iran had agreed to certain caps on its nuclear activities.
In the meantime, the other parties to the deal, in particular France, Britain and Germany, only paid lip service to safeguarding Iran’s economic dividends as promised under the JCPOA, prompting Iran – after an entire year of “strategic patience” – to reduce its nuclear obligations in a legal move under the deal.
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a new agreement “cannot be postponed any longer”, during a visit to Occupied Palestine which staunchly opposes efforts to forge a deal.
“What we would like to see is that an agreement is reached in Vienna,” Scholz told reporters alongside Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, a vocal critic of the international talks in Austria’s capital.
“Now is the time to make a decision,” Scholz said. “This must not be postponed any longer and cannot be postponed any longer. Now is the time to finally say yes to something that represents a good and reasonable solution.”
Former Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu cheered when then-president Donald Trump withdrew