US must lift ‘unjustifiable’ Iran bans, take sincere steps on JCPOA: China

China’s foreign minister has urged the United States to demonstrate good faith and remove ‘unjustifiable’ sanctions it has imposed on Iran as quickly as possible in order to save the multilateral nuclear deal of 2015.

Wang Yi made the remarks while elaborating on China’s foreign policy at a press briefing held in Beijing on Sunday on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) via video link.

Wang criticized the US for its unilateral withdrawal in 2018 from the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – and its so-called ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran.

“The Iranian nuclear issue is a sensitive issue that affects the whole situation in the Middle East and the [Persian] Gulf region. In the past four years, the US side broke its promise by pulling out of JCPOA unilaterally, and has imposed maximum pressure on Iran, which led to a renewed escalation of tension in the region.”

Pointing to the new US administration’s willingness to return to the JCPOA, he expressed hope that Washington “will demonstrate its sincerity and take actions as quickly as possible, including removing the unjustifiable sanctions and the long-arm jurisdiction on third-party entities and individuals.”

The Chinese foreign minister also called on Iran to resume full compliance with the JCPOA and take up its responsibilities of nuclear non-proliferation.

He said both Tehran and Washington can “move forward according to the principle of synchronized and reciprocal steps.”

China urges US to return to JCPOA as only way out of nuclear impasse

China says US return to the JCPOA is the only way to resolve the standoff over Iran

Under his signature “maximum pressure” policy against Iran, former US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the landmark accord and restored the economic sanctions that the deal had lifted. The US also began threatening third-party countries with “secondary sanctions” if they did business with Iran in defiance of the bans.

Trump abandoned the deal despite its multilateral nature and the fact that it had been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council in the form of Resolution 2231. Washington's allies in the deal – London, Paris, and Berlin – also bowed to the US pressure, abiding by the sanctions and stopping their trade with Tehran.

Iran, in turn, began confronting the sanctions under the Resistive Economy directive by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

It also started a number of nuclear countermeasures on the first anniversary of the US’s withdrawal in line with its rights under the deal to retaliate for the other side’s non-commitment. The Islamic Republic has been gradually increasing its counteractions as Washington and the European trio continues to violate their obligations under the JCPOA.

The administration of President Joe Biden has criticized the maximum pressure policy. However, it has stopped short of revoking it, and instead, it has kept the sanctions in place as leverage to push Tehran into a new round of talks, which Iran has emphatically rejected.

E3 move to abandon strange anti-Iran resolution sign of common sense: Russian diplomat

In a related development, a senior Russian diplomat said on Sunday that the move by the three European signatories to the JCPOA to drop their previous decision to adopt a "strange" resolution against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency'(IAEA)'s Board of Governors was a sign of "common sense".

A lot of negative information is floating around. But the reality isn’t as bad as one can think. For instance last week when E-3 abandoned their strange draft resolution on Iran it was a demonstration of common sense. On other vital topics common sense can also prevail, we hope.

— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) March 7, 2021

"A lot of negative information is floating around. But the reality isn’t as bad as one can think," Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador to international organizations in Vienna, said in a post on his Twitter account.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman says the IAEA had dropped a decision to adopt an anti-Iran resolution over the country’s reduction of commitments under a landmark nuclear deal with world powers after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed the “toughest ever” sanctions on Tehran.

“The draft resolution was dropped due to extensive diplomatic efforts in Tehran, Vienna and the capitals of all members of the [IAEA] Board of Governors, particularly the three European countries, and through the cooperation of China and Russia,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

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