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Friday, 09 April 2021_Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs says Tehran will not reverse the reduction of its nuclear commitments before the US lifts all the sanctions and returns to the landmark nuclear deal it abandoned under former US President Donald Trump.
Until the United States lifts all of its sanctions and returns to the JCPOA, none of Iran’s nuclear activities, especially in the field of enrichment, will be halted or even reduced,” Abbas Araqchi said late on Thursday, according to IRNA.
Araqchi’s remarks come as intensive talks are underway to revive the JCPOA, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, as the remaining signatories to the deal as well as the US have sent their top diplomats to Vienna to discuss key issues surrounding the deal.
Back in May 2019, Iran began to scale down its nuclear commitments under Article 36 of the JCPOA, saying the move was a response to the US withdrawal and the remaining parties’ failure to protect Iran from US sanctions.
Under a law passed by the Iranian Parliament last December, the Iranian administration started to produce and store enriched uranium with a 20-percent purity level, breaking the 3.67-percent enrichment parameter set by the 2015 nuclear agreement.
However, Tehran has repeatedly said its measures will be reversed as soon as Washington lifts its illegal sanctions.
Araqchi: 20% enrichment moving faster than planned
“Our 20% enrichment is now moving even faster than the speed envisaged by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (the Iranian Parliament) in its law, and 20% enriched materials are being produced now,” Araqchi said.
He asserted that the process will continue until an agreement on the implementation of the JCPOA is reached, under which the US would lift all of its sanctions.
“As it has been stressed many times, all of the sanctions must be lifted in one step,” the top Iranian negotiator added.
Araqchi also denied indirect talks with Washington through the European parties to the JCPOA, saying the talks involve China and Russia in addition to the Europeans.
“We are negotiating here with all of the current members of the JCPOA, namely the three European countries, Russia and China, as well as the European Union, which is the coordinator of the JCPOA, and they, on the other hand, are talking to the Americans and convey the results of the talks,” he said.
“But we are not yet in a position to judge, and negotiations have not yet been concluded,” he said, adding that there is a long path forward but the talks are constructive.
Araqchi also said on Thursday that the Iranian negotiators are engaged in talks over the removal of sanctions all at once as well as details of which and how the sanctions would be lifted.
“In our view, America has to take its actions in one step, then we’ll verify, and then Iran will follow with its own actions,” he reiterated. “How verification will happen is another point of our discussion.”
He made similar remarks while speaking with Press TV’s correspondent in Vienna.
“The US must lift anti-Iran sanctions [and only] then Tehran would resume compliance with [the] JCPOA,” the deputy foreign minister told Press TV on Thursday.
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to respond directly to whether the US would lift all of the sanctions in one go.
“Well, our response to specific proposals is best delivered in engagement with our European allies and with the Russian and Chinese partners on the ground in Vienna,” he said at a press briefing on Thursday after he was asked to comment on Araqchi’s remarks.
Price described the talks as constructive and as accomplishing what they set out to do.
“And in fact, these discussions have been constructive. This forum has been constructive; it has been businesslike; this has been a step forward,” he said.
The American spokesman also voiced his country’s preparedness to “take the necessary steps to return to compliance with the JCPOA and that would include lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the JCPOA.”
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