Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs reiterated that the nuclear deal signed with world powers would be of no value if sanctions were not lifted.
“By removing sanction Iran means those agreed under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the ones imposed after the US withdrawal from the deal, and those imposed under new labels,” official IRNA news agency quoted Abbas Araghchi as saying.
Araghchi added that the JCPOA requires participatory countries to remove sanctions.
“The JCPOA is built on two pillars; one, Iran's nuclear commitments and the other, the sanctions against Iran that the other side must remove,” he explained.
After pulling the US out of the JCPOA, the Trump administration imposed sweeping sanctions against Iran, mainly aimed at choking off its oil sales and blocking its international banking transactions, in a futile attempt to force Tehran to negotiate a new deal that would also cover its national defense program and its regional activity.
Iran, however, exercised patience in the face of Washington’s exit, waiting for the remaining signatories — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — to act on their contractual obligations and prevent the American bans from affecting international business ties with Tehran.
With the Europeans having failed to do so under Washington’s pressure, Tehran moved exactly a year later to suspend parts of its JCPOA commitments in five phases based on the mechanisms devised in the agreement.
As the Europeans kept failing, Iran’s Parliament eventually intervened in December 2021, adopting a law that requires the administration to suspend even more commitments if the sanctions remain in place by February 21.
The new US administration under President Joe Biden, who was vice president when the JCPOA was inked, has said he would rejoin the deal, but has condition a return to the deal on Tehran’s resumption of full compliance with the agreement.