Raisi reaffirms sanctions must go

TEHERAN－Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi says any agreement between Iran and world powers in Vienna must include the removal of sanctions on Iran and valid guarantees for the implementation of commitments, the presidential website said.

Raisi made the remarks during a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday.

"In the course of negotiations, the Islamic Republic of Iran has offered constructive proposals and has examined the proposals by the other sides of the talks and their compliance with the interests of the Iranian people," Raisi said.

He warned against "political pressures or claims made with the aim of maintaining pressure on the Iranian people", which has undermined the prospect of reaching an agreement in the talks aimed at reviving the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

Macron said good progress had been made in the Vienna talks, and he expressed the hope that they would produce results soon.

Then US president Donald Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, which prompted the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments one year later and advance its halted nuclear programs.

Since last April eight rounds of talks have been held in Vienna between Iran and the remaining parties, Britain, China, France, Russia, and Germany, with the United States indirectly involved in the talks, to revive the landmark deal.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Saturday that talks to revive the deal could succeed "at the earliest possible time" if the US makes the necessary political decisions.

Reuters reported on Thursday that a US-Iranian deal is taking shape in Vienna after months of indirect talks to revive the nuclear pact. The draft text of the agreement alluded to other measures, including unfreezing billions of Iranian funds abroad and releasing Western prisoners held in Iran, Reuters reported.

"We believe prisoner swap is a humanitarian issue … unrelated to the nuclear accord," the foreign minister told a panel at the Munich Security Conference.

"Teheran's definite choice is to respect national interests and not to cross the logical and legitimate red lines of Iran."

Xinhua - Agencies