Tehran, (Samajweekly) Iran will not cross its redlines to surrender in the Vienna talks, the conclusion of which requires “political will” of the US, Kamal Kharazi, a senior Advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said.
Making the remarks at the Doha Forum international conference, Kharazi on Sunday added that “we want to reach an agreement (in Vienna) and establish normal relations, but we will not allow our independence to be violated and we will not surrender,” official news agency IRNA reported.
He said the Europeans “did nothing” to solve the problems after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Xinhua news agency reported.
The Europeans promised to design regulations within European law to protect their companies from US secondary sanctions, but to no avail, Kharazi, the Iranian former Foreign Minister, added.
Regarding Iran’s demands from the US for an agreement, the Iranian official said the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) must be removed from the US list of foreign terrorist organisations.
“The IRGC is a national army, which should not be considered as a terrorist group. It is very important for the Iranians that the IRGC be removed from the list,” he added.
This is not the only issue, and other issues should be addressed in the possible deal, such as the US guarantees that it will not withdraw from the likely deal once again in the future and lift the sanctions on more than 500 Iranian institutions and individuals, some of which have a direct impact on Iran-West relations, he noted.
On Sunday, US Special Envoy to Iran, Robert Malley said the IRGC will remain sanctioned under US law.
In line with the diplomatic efforts to bridge “the remaining gaps in the Vienna talks,” the European Union (EU) Coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, Enrique Mora and Iran’s Chief Nuclear Negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani held talks in Tehran on Sunday and exchanged views on the latest developments of removing US anti-Iran sanctions and the remaining issues in Vienna negotiations, official news agency IRNA reported.
During the meeting, Bagheri Kani repeated Iran’s “seriousness and determination” to finalise the agreement in Vienna, noting that “an agreement could be reached if the American side was realistic.”
Mora, Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, also reported on his latest consultations with other parties.
On March 11, the EU announced a pause in the Vienna talks on the restoration of the JCPOA.
In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1, namely Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US, plus Germany. However, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the pact in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments.
Since April 2021, Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have held eight rounds of talks in Vienna to revive the deal.
