Iran Has Made Its Political Decision in Vienna Talks: Source
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A source close to the team of Iranian negotiators in the Vienna talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal said unlike Washington, Tehran has made its political decision.
“Iran has made its political decision,” the source told Tasnim on Monday, commenting on the course of Vienna negotiations about the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and lifting of the sanctions on Iran.
“The main obstacle is the lack of a political decision by the US,” the source added.
“Washington should be worried about the loss of opportunity,” the source said.
In a post on his Twitter account on Tuesday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said, “Continuing maximum pressure against Iran, current US administration has so far tried to meet the goals that Trump failed to achieve through bullying, by making unsupported promises.”
“With this Washington's illusions, the path to negotiations will not be smooth,” the security official said about the ongoing Vienna talks.
In comments at a presser on Monday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran will by no means compromise its principles on the necessity for the termination of sanctions and for benefiting from the 2015 nuclear deal in the course of Vienna negotiations.
Describing the removal of sanctions and Iran’s right to enjoy the advantages of the JCPOA as Tehran’s red line in the talks, the spokesman said Washington is expected to have made the requisite decisions.
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 US into full compliance.
The US 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.
The eighth round of the Vienna talks began on December 27 with a focus on the removal of all sanctions that the United States had imposed on Iran after its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA. The US is not allowed to directly attend the talks due to its pullout in 2018 from the deal with Iran.
