Iran’s push for sanctions removal main point of discussion in Vienna: Ministry

TASNIM

The fundamental issues discussed in the Vienna talks on the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal pertain to Iran’s push for the removal of the sanctions that have obstructed the country’s economic benefits, said the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

In remarks at a gathering of university students in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Saeed Khatibzadeh added Iran insists that the people’s economic benefits within the framework of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tasnim News Agency reported.

He emphasized that the sanctions preventing Iran from enjoying the economic advantages of the JCPOA and the entire chain of the embargoes on the country must be terminated as a result of the negotiations in Vienna.

The spokesman said Iran has not held any direct talks with the United States in Vienna so far, noting that the whole point of the talks is that Iran does not basically accept the red list of U.S. sanctions.

Iran and the remaining participants to the JCPOA have been holding talks in Vienna since April last year with the aim of reviving the deal by bringing the United States into full compliance.

The United States left the JCPOA in May 2018 under former president Donald Trump. The Vienna talks began on a promise by Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, to rejoin the deal and repeal the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Biden, however, has so far failed to undo Trump’s own undoing of Barack Obama’s Iran policy, which led to the JCPOA in June 2015.