New Sanctions Signaling US Insincerity: Lawmaker
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian lawmaker said on Saturday the US refusal to honor the commitments it signed onto in Geneva regarding the nuclear deal with Iran is proof of its insincerity, and added that the G5+1 is only after securing more concessions from Tehran.
“The new US sanctions showed that they are not after pursuing a rational course of talks, but are instead after gaining concessions from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mohammad Esmaili told the Tasnim News Agency.
Esmaili’s comments were made after the White House decided to add more than a dozen Iranian and foreign firms and individuals to its blacklist for trying to evade sanctions imposed on Iran.
The Iranian MP said that if the negotiations continued, the team of Iranian negotiators would have to be cautious and the text of any agreement be quite clear and transparent, since the western governments have proved that they do not remain committed to their words.
“They are after preventing Iran from obtaining the nuclear technology,” added Esmaili, who urged parliament and the country's Supreme National Security Council to remind Iran's nuclear negotiators of Tehran's red lines in the talks.
The US decision comes after Iran and the Group 5+1 -- the US, Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany -- signed a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program based on which the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to imposed no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to slow down parts of its nuclear activities and to allow more inspection of its nuclear facilities.
During the half-year period, Iran and the G5+1 are due to negotiate a comprehensive deal with the aim of resolving for good the standoff over Iran's nuclear program after a decade of on-off meetings and failed attempts.
The two sides are still in talks over how to implement the November deal. On Thursday, Iran's delegation left talks with representatives of the G5+1 in Vienna on the implementation of the deal after the US expanded its sanctions blacklist, with Iranian officials arguing the new measures go against the spirit of the agreement brokered in Geneva last month.
Also, Iran's foreign ministry described the latest blacklists as unconstructive, saying that the US administration is responsible for these indiscreet moves.
“Unfortunately, we are witnessing serious confusion in the approach, decisions and remarks of American officials, and the US administration is fully responsible for the consequences of (these) indiscreet measures,” Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Friday.
Reaction to the latest US decision has not been limited to Iranian officials . Russian foreign ministry has warned that new US sanctions against Iran could negatively affect the implementation of Tehran’s nuclear deal with the six world powers.
“Widening American 'blacklists' could seriously complicate the fulfillment of the Geneva agreement, which proposes easing the sanctions regime," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maria Zakharova, said in a Friday statement.
"Washington's actions do not help improve confidence between the negotiating parties or reach a comprehensive agreement aimed at resolving problems related to Iran's nuclear program by fully ensuring its rights stipulated by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," she added.
