TEHRAN —
Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday
that Washington is “imposing new conditions” in the negotiations to restore the
2015 nuclear agreement.
اضافة اعلان
“On the issue of lifting sanctions, they (the
Americans) are interested in proposing and imposing new conditions outside the
negotiations,” state news agency IRNA quoted
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as
saying.
“In the last two or three weeks, the American side
has made excessive demands that contradict some paragraphs of the text,” he added.
Iran has been engaged for a year in negotiations
with France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and China directly, and the US
indirectly in the Austrian capital to revive the deal, known formally as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“The Americans keep talking about the need for
direct negotiations, but we have not seen the benefit of direct talks with the
US,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
The 2015 agreement gave Iran sanctions relief in
exchange for curbs on its nuclear program to guarantee that Tehran could not
develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.
But the US unilateral withdrawal from the accord in
2018 under then-president
Donald Trump and the re-imposition of biting economic
sanctions prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.
“We seek the lifting of sanctions, but with dignity
and with a lasting agreement,” the foreign minister said, adding that “Iran has
stood and will stand by its red lines”.
The Vienna negotiations aim to return the US to the
nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure
Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.
They have been paused since March 11 after
Russia demanded guarantees that Western sanctions imposed following its February 24 invasion
of Ukraine would not damage its trade with Iran.
Days later, Moscow said it had received the
necessary guarantees.
“During my visit to Moscow, we agreed with the
Russian side that if we reached an agreement in Vienna, Russia would not be an
obstacle,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
“We were close to concluding technical discussions
with the three European countries, but at the same time we faced the crisis and
the war in Ukraine,” he added.
Talks had progressed most of the way toward reviving
the deal, with different parties pointing to the “final phase”, but pending
issues are still unresolved.
Among the key sticking points is
Tehran’s demand to delist
the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military, from a US
terror list.
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