U.S. Lawmakers Vow to Tear Up Any Sanctions Relief Deal

Iran Says Will Not Sacrifice Demands

Date: 01 December 2021 - 21:36

News ID: ۹۷۲۷۸

VIENNA – A senior member of Iran’s negotiating team said Wednesday the country has entered the new Vienna talks with “clear demands and proposals”, but it will not sacrifice the nation’s demands and rights for the sake of deadlines.
“The Islamic Republic has come to Vienna with full seriousness and is negotiating with transparent demands and proposals,” Press TV quoted the source as saying.
The country, the source added, “stands prepared to continue intensive talks as long as needed, but it will not be ready to sacrifice its principled demands and the Iranian nation’s rights for mere artificial deadlines or timetables”, it added.
Envoys from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries — Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — began on Monday the seventh round of the talks in the Austrian capital aimed at removing sanctions on the Islamic Republic
The negotiations resumed after a five-month pause over Iran’s presidential election and the formation of a new administration in the country.
The U.S. administration of President Joe Biden has said it is willing to rejoin the deal, but it has retained sanctions imposed under his predecessor with the aim of keeping Iran’s feet to the fire.
Iran says it won’t settle for anything less than the removal of all U.S. bans in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that the U.S. would not abandon the agreement again.
On Tuesday, a report said Republicans in the U.S. have pledged to block any sanctions relief for Iran.
Twenty-five Congress members had written a letter to Biden this week, accusing the White House of “withholding information” from the chamber about the nature of negotiations with Tehran.
“Despite over a dozen letters by members of the Republican Study Committee asking for information on Iran sanctions enforcement, your administration has continued to leave Congress in the dark regarding its plans to weaken sanctions enforcement and provide sanctions relief to Iran,” the letter read.
The Republican Study Committee has 150 members, who have been the vocal advocates

of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
In the letter, the signatories reminded the Biden administration of the power of Congress to reimpose sanctions on Iran.
“We are writing to remind you that the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and hence the ability to enact economic sanctions resides in Congress,” the letter added.
The new round of talks between Iran and the P4+1 grouping — Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — aimed at removing the draconian sanctions imposed on Iran by the previous U.S. administration resumed in Vienna Monday.
Ali Baqeri-Kani, who is leading the Iranian delegation at the talks, made a strong case for the need to remove the sanctions before moving on to discuss other issues.
“When Republicans return to the majority soon, we look forward to re-asserting Congress’s authority over economic sanctions by passing the Maximum Pressure Act and circumscribing the ability of your administration, like the Obama administration before it, to lift sanctions and abuse waiver and license authorities to provide sanctions relief to Iran,” the Republican letter said.
In a tweet on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton said the deal will be “torn up when Republicans take power again”.
“A Biden-Iran nuclear deal will be even worse than what came before it—and will be torn up when Republicans take power again,” he added.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the U.S. “objective has not changed”.
“Our objective has not changed, it remains a mutual return to full compliance with the JCPOA, this is the best available option to restrict Iran’s nuclear program and provide a platform to address Iran’s destabilizing conduct,” she said of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The U.S. abandoned the deal in May 2018 and imposed the most draconian sanctions ever on Iran.