Easing of sanctions not enough, says Iran FM

TEHERAN－A US move to restore sanctions waivers is "good but not enough", Iran said on Saturday, and talks in Vienna initiated about 10 months ago to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have now reached a crucial stage.

The US said on Friday that it was waiving sanctions on Iran's civilian nuclear program, which allows international nuclear collaboration projects.

The State Department said in a report to Congress that the move "is designed to facilitate discussions that would help to close a deal on a mutual return to full implementation of the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and lay the groundwork for Iran's return to the performance of its JCPOA commitments".

Moscow's ambassador to the UN in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, welcomed the US waiver decision as "a move in the right direction".

"It will help expedite restoration of JCPOA and mutual return of US and Iran to compliance with 2015 deal. It also can be seen as an indication that the Vienna talks have entered the final stage," Ulyanov said.

However, some officials and experts said the move was insufficient.

"The lifting of some sanctions can, in the true sense of the word, translate into their good will," the ISNA news agency quoted Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, as saying.

More actions needed

"Americans talk about it, but it should be known that what happens on paper is good but not enough."

The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council also reflected Teheran's view that the US move falls short.

"Real, effective and verifiable economic benefit for Iran is a necessary condition for the formation of an agreement," Ali Shamkhani said.

"The show of lifting sanctions is not considered a constructive effort."

Assal Rad, a senior research fellow at the National Iranian American Council, said as people who pushed the "failed policy" of the former US president Donald Trump start yelling that this is a "concession" to Iran, it ought to be remembered that "the sanctions crushing its economy are still in place".

The US "has done absolutely nothing to end 'maximum pressure' sanctions targeting innocent citizens", said Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Teheran.

"While preserving Iran's rights, any deal must comprehensively (and) verifiably remove all of the barbaric sanctions, and credible assurances must also be provided."

The JCPOA was signed in 2015.However, Trump pulled the US out of the pact in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Teheran, which prompted the latter to breach some of the deal's restrictions a year later and advance its once-halted nuclear programs.

Since last April eight rounds of talks have been held between Iran and other parties in the Austrian capital, Vienna, aimed at reviving the deal.

Xinhua - Agencies