Iran Tells US To Lift Sanctions If It Wants To Revive P5+1
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said the US must first return to the 2015 nuclear deal and lift sanctions if it wants to revive P5+1, adding that “there is NO P5+1” because of US withdrawal from the JCPOA.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a tweet that the US should lift anti-Iran sanctions.
Khatibzadeh also wrote in his tweet that “because of US withdrawal from JCPOA, there is NO P5+1. It is now ONLY Iran and P4+1″, adding, “to revive P5+1”, US must act first and lift all sanctions, then Iran will respond.
The reaction — and a similar comment from Iran’s foreign minister – were in response to an alleged claim by the US President Joe Biden after he expressed an interest in returning the US to the JCPOA without taking any action that could mirror the announcement or adopting any measure towards relieving the sanctions.
On Wednesday, Zarif addressed the Biden administration’s inaction, saying the new US president was upholding Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy towards Iran that had brought Washington nothing but frustration and disgrace.
The JCPOA stands for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the official name of the nuclear deal that came about in Vienna in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 group of states — the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany. It lifted nuclear-related economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic that, in turn, enacted some voluntary changes in its nuclear energy program.
In 2018, the US left the deal under former president Donald Trump and returned the draconian sanctions that Iran has denounced as “economic terrorism.” Washington then successfully pressured the European trio into abiding by the economic bans and stopping their trade with Tehran.
The United States’ violations came in sheer disregard for the multi-party nature of the agreement. Taking the measures, the US also ignored the fact that the deal has been ratified by the United Nations Security Council as one of its resolutions.
A year after the US’s withdrawal, the Islamic Republic began a set of countermeasures that saw it suspending its commitment to the JCPOA gradually and through many steps as the allies would sustain their non-commitment to the deal.
