The Islamic Republic rejects a ‘step-by-step’ lifting of US sanctions and wants all restrictions to go away at once, the foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told state-controlled Press TV.

The spokesman chose to give an interview to the English language broadcaster instead of local media, which also quoted Press TV.

The United States, Iran and the European countries involved in the 2015 nuclear deal announced on Friday that talks will begin in Vienna on April 6, with US representatives acting on the sidelines and indirectly negotiating with Iran to resolve the impasse over reviving the deal. China and Russia will also be present as original signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, as the agreement is called.

Khatibzadeh said that Tehran is opposed to any gradual easing of sanctions, which is preferred by Washington. Former president Donald Trump imposed tough sanctions on Iran after he withdrew from the agreement demanding more concessions from Iran. His ‘maximum pressure’ campaign was meant to force Iran to renegotiate the agreement.

"No step-by-step plan is being considered," Khatibzadeh told Press TV. "The definitive policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the lifting of all U.S. sanctions."

The sanctions have dealt a serious blow to Iran’s economy and critics of the Biden Administration say there should be no reprieve for Tehran until it makes major concessions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, in addition to changing its behavior in the region.

Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma tweeted April 2 that the US should not return to the “deeply flawed” agreement. He added that Congress rejected the deal on a bipartisan basis in 2015. “If you repeat history next week, we will work to reject it once again.”

Any major decision by Iran will be made by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani voiced optimism on Saturday that sanctions will ease before he leaves office later this year. Presidential elections are scheduled for June.

Khamenei faces the dilemma of stretching out the negotiations to extract the maximum concessions possible from the United States or make a quick deal to stave off internal instability caused by the economic hardship of the sanctions.

Criticism by Iranians and others opposed to a quick US return to the JCPOA points to the danger that the Biden Administration will make a hasty deal, giving away the leverage of sanctions before Iran makes any meaningful concessions toward strengthening the nuclear agreement or curtailing its missile program threatening regional countries.