by MEE Staff at The Middle East Eye
Multilateral nuclear talks set to begin on Tuesday will not succeed if the other signatories to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal cannot convince Washington to lift its sanctions, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman has warned.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, speaking at a news conference on Monday, said the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting in Vienna relies on France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia – known as the P4+1 – being able to get Washington to lift all Trump-era sanctions.
“If we can reach an agreement on the comprehensive lifting of sanctions with the P4+1 and they can guarantee US commitments, the path will be opened,” Khatibzadeh said.
When announcing the talks last week, the multilateral Joint Commission for the Iran deal said the goal of the summit would be “to clearly identify sanctions lifting and nuclear implementation measures”.
While Khatibzadeh said Iran’s intentions going into the summit would be to focus solely on the lifting of US sanctions, he stressed that no “direct or indirect negotiations” will take place between Tehran and Washington during the meeting – a position also expressed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week.
‘A mutual return’
On Friday, US State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said the talks in Vienna would be a “healthy first step forward”, adding that both sanctions relief and any necessary steps it would require from Iran will be “up for discussion”.
“The goal is obviously a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA,” she said, using the acronym for the original nuclear accord.
The Biden administration has demanded that Iran make the first move in a “compliance for compliance” strategy. However, in recent weeks US officials have been calling for talks to negotiate mutual and gradual compliance with the accord.
‘There is only one step. It is a step that includes the lifting of all US sanctions’
– Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iran foreign ministry spokesman
“We can play games about who goes first. I think anyone who’s dealt with this knows that neither side is going to go first entirely,” US envoy for Iran Rob Malley said last month.
“There’s going to have to be some agreement on choreographing, on synchronising. We’re open to discussing that, but it’s going to have to be discussed. It’s not going to happen simply unilaterally by one side taking all the steps and waiting,” he continued.
For its part, Iran has repeatedly indicated that it was the US – under former President Donald Trump – that withdrew from the deal in 2018, triggering Iran’s breaches; and therefore it should be the US to make the first goodwill move in lifting sanctions.
“The path is clear. US sanctions must be completely lifted and verified. There is only one step. It is a step that includes the lifting of all US sanctions, and in return, Iran is ready to suspend its retaliatory measures,” Khatibzadeh said during Monday’s news conference.
“What we are saying today is that we should go back to January 2015 and all the sanctions that the United States has added and changed their labels, should be lifted,” he continued.