Iran Reiterates Demand For Lifting Sanctions, As Talks Set To Resume

Iran nuclear talks are set to resume this week as Tehran on Monday reiterated its demands for removal of all ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions imposed since 2018.

"An agreement in which the sanctions that form the maximum pressure are not lifted will condition the country's economy and cannot be the basis of a #GoodDeal," Ali Shamkhani the head of Iran’s national security council tweeted on Monday.

Iran's foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also said on Monday, "In the latest texts obtained from the Vienna talks, part of our demands for the lifting of sanctions have not yet been addressed."

‘Maximum pressure’ refers to all sanctions imposed by former president Donald Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA). While Iran has been demanding their removal as a strict condition to restore the deal, the US expressed willingness to lift only nuclear sanctions.

Trump imposed around 1,500 sanctions on Iran since May 2018, but a majority are sanctions on Iranian officials, individuals and companies for reasons other than the nuclear program. Sanctions were imposed for human rights violations, support for terror groups, violation of banking and export laws, money laundering and similar offences.

The Biden Administration has signaled its readiness to lift oil export sanctions and possibly banking restrictions that have crippled Iran’s economy, in exchange for Iran ending steps it has taken in the past two years to expand its nuclear program.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatbzadeh in his Monday morning weekly briefing told reporters that Tehran expects the US to return to the Vienna talks “having made the necessary decisions in regards with sanctions and the economic dimensions of the JCPOA.” He reiterated that lifting of sanctions is Iran’s "red line".

However, US chief negotiator Robert Malley told MSNBC on Friday that the two sides have not agreed on key issues, such as which US sanctions should be lifted and what it means for Iran to return to JCPOA.

Malley said that US is willing to lift “most sanctions” imposed since 2018, but some were imposed for “Iran’s behavior” and are not related to the nuclear issue.

This statement shows that the most critical questions remain unresolved. Iran has ramped up its uranium enrichment and has amassed a considerable amount of fissile material, cutting its breakout time to build a bomb to a few weeks. It has also deployed thousands of advanced enrichment machines banned by the JCPOA. The question whether Tehran is willing to give up all its advances remains unclear and the issue of which US sanctions to lift is also undecided.

Ten months of diplomacy without a tangible result has raised criticism of how far the Biden Administration is willing to wait. Robert Malley, the US chief negotiator said Sunday that he is heading back to Vienna to resume indirect talks with Iran, insisting that there is still hope to revive the JCPOA. "We'll come back next week. That's a symbol or a sign of our continued belief that it is not a dead corpse - that we need to revive it because it is in our interest."

Khatibzadeh sounded defiant in his briefing when he said, “Iran pursues a good and reliable agreement, and the American government should pay for [leaving] JCPOA and violating the United Nations resolution 2231.”

The spokesman was referring to the UN Security Council Resolution that put a seal of approval on the 2015 nuclear agreement and removed international sanctions in 2015 after Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program.

US President Joe Biden on Sunday spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and discussed the Iran nuclear deal. Israel opposes any agreement that would not permanently bar Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Bennet said he and Biden discussed ways to halt Iran's nuclear program.