US must lift sanctions from 1,500 individuals to fix nuclear deal, Iran says
- Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made the comments following a meeting he had with Iran’s parliament about progress in the talks
- The European Union will chair the talks in Vienna, where envoys are trying to synchronise a US return to and Iranian compliance with the 2015 agreement.
The United States must remove sanctions designations for some 1,500 individuals as part of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with the state-run ICANA news agency on Sunday.
Araghchi did not give more details but his comments are in line with Iran’s demands that the US lift both the sanctions it reimposed on the Islamic Republic after then-President Donald Trump abandoned the landmark agreement and hundreds of more penalties added by his administration.
Diplomats will convene in Vienna for a third consecutive week on Monday to try to salvage Iran’s nuclear accord with world powers as time runs down on an interim monitoring agreement between Tehran and United Nations inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Araghchi’s comments followed a meeting he had with Iran’s parliament about progress in the talks. Many politicians oppose President Hassan Rowhani’s efforts to resurrect the deal and have tried to influence the negotiations. Araghchi did not comment about the outcome of that meeting.
Earlier on Sunday the head of the chamber’s National Security Commission, Mojtaba Zolnour, said he was leading efforts to prevent the restoration of the nuclear agreement without full parliamentary approval and said lawmakers must be present in the Vienna meetings, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.