WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Biden administration has lifted sanctions on two Iranian industrial entities but said there is “no change in U.S. sanctions policy toward Iran,” describing the move as irrelevant to talks on the possible revival of a multilateral nuclear agreement with Tehran.
The U.S. Department of Treasury announced to remove the sanctions on the Mammut Industrial Group and its subsidiary Mammut Diesel.
The sanctions had originally been imposed by the Trump administration in September 2020 as part of the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against Iran.
They were among an estimated 1,500 coercive measures imposed by the former Trump administration since 2018.
According to the Washington Post, the campaign failed badly in its objectives, including renegotiation of the Iran nuclear deal and prevention of Tehran’s growing influence in the Middle East.
The Biden administration’s announcement comes as it claims to be willing to rejoin the international nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
However, a Treasury Department spokesperson said on Friday that the deletion of the two entities from the sanctions list “do not reflect any change in U.S. government sanctions policy towards Iran”.
“They have nothing to do with JCPOA negotiation efforts.”
The Treasury also described the sanctioned entities as being “key producers and suppliers of military-grade, dual-use goods for Iran’s missile programs.”
The spokesperson said the United States will continue to impose more sanctions on the Islamic Republic to counter what he described as Iran’s destabilizing activities.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and reimposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the deal had lifted. He also placed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of the “maximum pressure” campaign.
Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.
Now, the Biden administration, says it wants to compensate for Trump’s mistakes and rejoin the nuclear deal, but it is showing an overriding propensity for maintaining some of the sanctions as a tool of pressure against Iran.
Tehran insists that all sanctions should first be removed in a verifiable manner before the Islamic Republic reverses its remedial measures.