JCPOA Talks Should Be Based on Mutual Interests, Rights: Iran’s FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian slammed Washington for imposing anti-Iran sanctions while at the same time calling for talks with Tehran, stressing that negotiations on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal should be based on “mutual interests and rights”.
“The White House calls for negotiations with Iran and claims to be ready to return to the JCPOA. Yet it simultaneously imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals & entities,” the Iranian top diplomat wrote in a post on Twitter on Tuesday.
“We are closely examining Mr. Biden's behavior,” Amirabdollahian added.
“The purpose of negotiations is not talking for the sake of talking, but to achieve tangible results on the basis of respect for mutual interests. The P4+1 (the remaining JCPOA members) should be ready for negotiations based on mutual interests & rights.”
On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed a fresh round of sanctions on four individuals and two entities allegedly involved in promoting the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, despite Washington’s claims to be serious in rejoining the nuclear deal and removing sanctions against the country.
On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said that if the US attends the talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with the right plan and abandons the policy of sanctions, an agreement on Washington’s return to the JCPOA and the termination of sanctions will be made immediately.
“Everybody can rest assured that an agreement on how the US would rejoin the JCPOA and on the effective removal of sanctions, all at once, could be made immediately if the US comes to Vienna with a proper executive plan, abandons its previous policy of maintaining part of sanctions imposed by Trump, and does not waste the energy and time of others,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a press conference.
“We are waiting for action from Washington,” the Iranian spokesman added.
Slamming the American officials’ “paradoxical remarks” as a reason why the Vienna talks have not yielded results, Khatibzadeh said the US proceeds with the policy of maximum pressure on Iran on the one hand, and talks about the removal of sanctions on the other hand.
“The lifting of illegal (US) sanctions did not require so much complexity, preface, epilogue, or making green, yellow and red lists,” he noted.
The spokesman emphasized that Tehran and Washington have not had any direct or indirect contacts after the US’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reiterating that the US is held culpable for the violation of the UNSC Resolution and disruption of Iran’s economic and trade interaction. “Naturally, there will be no talks (with the US) in any shape and format as long as the US does not make up for them.”
The US re-introduced the sanctions against Iran in 2018 after leaving the JCPOA, a historic nuclear agreement that had lifted the inhumane economic bans in return for some voluntary restrictions on Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
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.
Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have held six rounds of talks in Vienna, which began after the US administration of Joe Biden voiced a willingness to rejoin the nuclear agreement, to examine the prospect of the bans’ fresh removal.
