Islam Times - Top Negotiator: Iran to Resume Implementation of Additional Protocol Only after Removal of Sanctions

Top Negotiator: Iran to Resume Implementation of Additional Protocol Only after Removal of Sanctions

Islam Times - Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and top negotiator in Vienna talks Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that his country will not resume implementation of the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) before the removal of all US sanctions.

“Resumption of voluntary application of AP (Additional Protocol) by Iran is predicated on sanctions being lifted,” Araqchi wrote on his twitter page.

“We'd like to get to it before 21 May, if possible We're serious and determined, ready to do it even tomorrow: once sanctions are verifiably lifted, we'll return to full implementation of JCPOA,” he underlined.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Friday that the Vienna talks are not about a new round of bargaining, stressing that the US should know that bargaining ended in July 2015.

“Washington must know that the new round of nuclear talks in Vienna is not a ground for another round of bargaining,” Khatibzadeh said on Friday, adding that bargaining ended in 2015 when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was inked between Iran and G5+1.

“Now is the time for President Biden to make a political decision to either … stick to the Trump administration's failed legacy or to distance itself from that policy and to commit to the nuclear deal that President Obama signed,” he noted.

The spokesman went on to say that Iran is trying to use all capacities in the agreement to revive it.

Also, last Monday, Khatibzadeh said that his country will not accept any undertakings in addition to what has been stated in the nuclear deal in the ongoing talks with the Group 4+1 (Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) in Vienna.

“We do not accept nuclear deal plus. It is not up to us how the US government will effectively lift sanctions in its domestic policy. Our issue is to see and verify the effective lifting of sanctions, and then we will stop our remedial measures,” Khatibzadeh told reporters in a virtual press conference in Tehran o.

The US, under former president Donald Trump, unilaterally withdrew participation in the agreement and re-imposed sanctions against Iran, which the accord had lifted.

The Trump administration subsequently launched what it touted as a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, hoping to force the Islamic Republic to accept large-scale limits on its nuclear program and missile work, among other things.

The administration of US President Joe Biden has verbally renounced that policy and admitted to its failure, while expressing a willingness to return to the Iran deal. However, it has so far stopped short of taking any concrete steps to that end and retained the sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Also, last week, Khatibzadeh said the country’s negotiating team is in no rush in the nuclear talks, but they won’t let the attrition talks either.

“The Iranian negotiating team is in no hurry in the talks, they perform their mission seriously and tactfully and at the same time, they won’t allow the talks become exhausting and protracted,” the spokesman said in reference to the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Iran and G4+1 in Vienna.

He clarified Iran’s principled policy in the Vienna talks, stressing that the text of the JCPOA must be implemented word by word.