Tehran, (Samajweekly) Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, has called for the removal of US sanctions that could benefit Iran economically.
“Real, effective and verifiable economic benefit for Iran is a necessary condition for the formation of an agreement” in the ongoing Vienna talks, Shamkhani tweeted on Saturday.
“A show of lifting sanctions is not considered constructive,” he said in response to Friday’s restoration of a sanction waiver by Washington, which allows civilian nuclear cooperation projects between Iran and the international community, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the recent US sanction waiver on Iran is “insufficient” for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The JCPOA was signed in 2015. However, former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, which prompted the latter to breach some of the deal’s restrictions one year later, and advance its once-halted nuclear programs.
Since April 2021, eight rounds of talks have been held between Iran and other remaining parties in the Austrian capital of Vienna to revive the deal.
