Iran Not to Tolerate More US Sanctions: Top Negotiator

“We have been very clear, when we met Americans two days ago, that we cannot tolerate such measures (new anti-Iran sanctions) anymore in the future and we certainly consider them as a violation of Geneva agreement,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi told British television broadcaster Channel 4 News.

The senior diplomat led the Iranian negotiating team in recent nuclear talks with US officials in the Swiss city of Geneva.

His comments came in reaction to the US new sanctions on more than 25 Iranian individuals and companies, including shipping firms, oil companies, airlines and six Iranian banks. Iranian officials have already condemned the sanctions as violation of the interim nuclear deal inked between Iran and six world powers.

The Geneva agreement, signed in November 2013, was indeed an agreement for the strengthening of mutual confidence between Iran and six world powers and was designed to pave the way for a permanent, comprehensive accord to settle a decade-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear activities.

Based on the interim deal, the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to freeze parts of its nuclear activities.

In reply to a question about the interaction between Tehran and Washington in the recent nuclear talks, Araqchi said, “Well, there is a good interaction as much as the atmosphere of the negotiations concerns, but it doesn’t mean we have resolved all of our problems.”

But at the same time, he expressed the hope that the problems would be settled during the future talks.

The next round of negotiations between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) will be held in the US city of New York on September 18.