Iran to accept nothing but 'verifiable' removal of US bans, source tells Press TV

The United States has no other choice but to remove all anti-Iran sanctions in a verifiable way, an informed source close to the Iranian negotiating team told Press TV ahead of Tuesday talks in Vienna over the 2015 nuclear deal.

The source said Washington's response to Iran's unilateral commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is nothing but a unilateral move to remove all the sanctions.

"Tehran will not accept any outcome of the Vienna meeting other than the removal of all sanctions," the source said on Monday night.

The source said the Iranian team's agenda in the Vienna talks is clear. "Iran will start its measures to return to JCPOA commitments only after the removal of all US sanctions and verifying it."

"Robert Malley will have to leave Vienna empty-handed if the Tuesday meeting would result in anything other than the removal of all US sanctions," the source added, referring to the US president's special envoy for Iran who is expected to attend the Vienna talks.

The comments came as Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Seyyed Abbas Araqchi has arrived in the Austrian capital for talks with the P4+1 (Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany) on the US return to the 2015 nuclear deal, which was abandoned by the former US president in 2018.

"The agenda of this [joint] commission meeting is the removal of all US cruel sanctions against Iran, and in other words, clarification of how parties [to the deal] should fulfill their commitments," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at his weekly press briefing on Monday.

“The path is clear. All US sanctions [against Iran] must be removed at once. Then [this measure] must be verified [by Tehran] and only then, the Islamic Republic will take its step [to return to full commitments under the nculear deal],” the Iranian spokesman said.

"In other words, we have only one step and not step-by-step [lifting of sanctions], and this one step includes the lifting of all sanctions imposed by the United States. In return, Iran will be ready to reverse its remedial measures, which were taken because of the opposite sides' violation of the treaty," Khatibzadeh said.

He added that the Tuesday meeting in Vienna is no different from previous sessions of the Joint Commission of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and is just a periodical meeting between Iran and the P4+1 similar to those held in the past months.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, adopted a policy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran after the withdrawal, escalating tensions with Iran and drawing strong criticism from the other signatories of the accord.

Iran was patient for one year. But with no palpable shift in circumstances, Tehran began a gradual process of reducing its nuclear undertakings. The decision was taken as Iran’s right under Article 36 of the JCPOA.

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