BEIJING (Dispatches) -- China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Saturday the United States must take the first step to lift the unilateral sanctions it has imposed on Iran to show its commitment to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was abandoned by the U.S. three years after its conclusion.
Speaking at the 9th World Peace Forum organized by Tsinghua University and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, a government-run policy group, Wang urged the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), amid the ongoing talks in the Austrian capital aimed at reviving the landmark agreement.
“The U.S. should correct its mistakes. It should fully and completely remove all its illegal and unilateral sanctions on Iran and any third party, to meet Iran halfway and make further breakthroughs in the negotiation,” the top Chinese diplomat said.
Since April, representatives from Iran and the remaining signatories to the JCPOA — France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China — have been holding face-to-face talks in Vienna with the purpose of bringing the U.S. back to compliance and putting the deal back on track.
Wang said it is most critical for the U.S. to make an earlier decision to rejoin the nuclear agreement.
“The U.S.’ unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA and its maximum pressure on Iran are the root causes of the current Iranian nuclear crisis,” Wang said, adding, “As the saying, goes, he who tied the bow should untie it.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday commended “significant progress” made in the Vienna talks, urging the United States to completely and unconditionally renew all its obligations to return to the JCPOA.
“If the United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and thereby violated the UN Security Council Resolution [2231] in a gross manner, then, probably, the U.S. return to the JCPOA presupposes a complete and unconditional renewal of all obligations,” he said.