Iran's Security Chief Says Sanctions Must Be Lifted For All Sectors

Ali Shamkhani, Iran's national security chief has tweeted that US sanctions should be lifted for all economic sectors, as nuclear talks resume in Vienna.

“Economic & technological capacities of the country have an integrated structure & lifting of sanctions should be same for all sectors,” Shamkhani tweeted on Tuesday.

Iran’s security chief did not explain what he meant by all economic sectors, but it could be hint to some sort of United States' policy not to lift all sanctions as it tries to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as JCPOA.

The Biden Administration has indicated it is willing to lift nuclear-related sanction imposed after former president Donald Trump withdrew for the agreement in 2018, but there other sanctions related to human rights or banking and export violations.

Shamkhani also wrote, “Previous experience has shown that without effective lifting of sanctions, sustainable economic benefits from JCPOA are like an illusion.”

When the 2015 nuclear agreement was concluded, all nuclear sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the United States and European countries were lifted.

Hardliners at the helm of Iran’s government have been often making contradictory remarks regarding the impact of sanctions. At the same time when they claim Iran has defeated US ‘maximum pressure’ they also call sanctions “cruel” punishment and blame shortcomings on restrictions imposed by the United States.