US Should Lift All Sanctions at Once: Iranian Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei dismissed the idea of a staged removal of the US sanctions, stressing that all economic sanctions must be lifted all at once before any further negotiations.
In comments on Tuesday, Rezaei said the only acceptable plan for the termination of the US sanctions on Iran is the framework outlined by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
“All sanctions must be lifted together. A staged removal of sanctions is lengthy and unreliable,” he noted, saying trust would not be rebuilt with a simple “candy”.
Denouncing the violation of the JCPOA by the US and Europe, Rezaei said, “All economic sanctions must be lifted at once, and negotiations will be meaningful after verifying and making sure about the American and European commitment.”
In remarks in February, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran will resume honoring the JCPOA in full only after the US has removed all sanctions on Tehran in a practical and verifiable manner.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world states —the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China— and was ratified in the form of Resolution 2231.
However, former US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reinstated the sanctions that had been lifted by the deal.
In May 2019, Iran began to scale back its JCPOA commitments after the remaining European parties failed to fulfill their end of the bargain and compensate for Washington’s absence.