TEHRAN -- Iran said on
Monday that Washington had to make a “political decision” regarding the removal of sanctions on the Islamic Republic as Tehran’s demand for their full removal to revive a 2015 nuclear deal was non-negotiable.
After eight rounds of talks since April, differences remain about the speed and scope of removing sanctions on Tehran, including Iran’s demand for a U.S. guarantee of no further coercive steps.
The talks paused on Jan. 28 as top negotiators returned to their respective capitals for consultations. U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley on Sunday said he would soon return to Vienna, insisting the pact could still be revived.
“The issue of removal of sanctions and Iran benefiting from it is Iran’s red line in the talks,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly a news conference.
“If the U.S. returns to Vienna with a political decision and a specific agenda ... to remove the sanctions, then surely it will be possible to reach a deal quickly.”
Iran’s lead nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani would return to Vienna on Tuesday, Khatibzadeh said.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday re-introduced sanctions waivers for Iran to allow international nuclear cooperation projects, as the talks on a 2015 international nuclear agreement with Tehran enter the final stretch, but Iranian officials dismissed them as a sham.
“Washington has decided to take a step which has no impact on Iran’s economic situation,” Khatibzadeh said, echoing Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian, who on Sunday described the U.S. move as a “good but insufficient” step.
Speaking in a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto here, Amir-Abdollahian said, “According to the latest texts of the Vienna talks, parts of our demands with regard to the removal of sanctions have not been addressed yet.”
Iran has gradually scaled down its compliance with in reaction to then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries and reimposing of the most draconian sanctions ever on Iran.
Iran insists on the immediate removal of all Trump-era sanctions in a verifiable process. Washington has said it would remove curbs inconsistent with the 2015 pact if Iran resumed compliance with the deal, implying it would leave in place others such as those imposed under baseless terrorism or human rights accusations.
Khatibzadeh rejected warnings by Western officials that time is running out to resurrect the pact.
“We do not consider any fake deadlines ... This round can be the last round if other parties fulfill their obligations and provide guarantees to Iran,” he said.
Earlier on Monday, Iran’s security chief Ali Shamkhani said in a tweet that the Iranian team would head to Vienna with a clear agenda of lifting sanctions.
“An agreement in which the sanctions that form the maximum pressure are not lifted will condition the country’s economy and cannot be the basis of a good deal,” he wrote in reference to a policy of the Trump administration that his successor, Joe Biden, continues to enforce.
“Whether the U.S. and the three European members of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) are really trying to clinch a deal with goodwill and seriousness is a question whose answer must be sought from the other side. We will continue our efforts with optimism, goodwill and seriousness to achieve a good and even immediate agreement,” Amir-Abdollahian also said.