Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Iran is ready to resume talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal but the administration of US President Joe Biden is sending a “negative sign” by keeping illegal sanctions on Tehran.
Amir-Abdollahian made the remark in an interview with NBC News on Thursday, saying Iran remains ready to restart the nuclear talks “very soon” but the US administration is refusing to remove the sanctions and imposing new ones.
The top Iranian diplomat said Biden needed to back up his talk of diplomacy with concrete actions to show Iran that Washington is serious about restoring the 2015 nuclear deal.
“They say, ‘We are ready to return to the fulfillment of our commitments.’ However, there is no action taken in order to show and prove the true will to the new Iranian administration, to the Iranian nation. And worse than that, simultaneously, they have managed to put on new sanctions,” Amir-Abdollahian told NBC News.
The Iranian foreign minister said it was up to the United States to demonstrate its seriousness about returning to the accord after former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the landmark deal three years ago.
“In other words, President Biden was and is criticizing the behavior of his predecessor, Mr. Trump vis-à-vis Iran, but at the same time, the volume of the file of sanctions that Mr. Trump built against Iran is being carried carefully by Mr. Biden,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian asked NBC News that if the US was serious about pursuing negotiations, then why it was “piling up” its coercive measures against Tehran. “This is a negative sign, signal to Iran,” he added.
“The reality of the matter is that for years, we have not obtained any benefits from the JCPOA,” the foreign minister said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions as the nuclear accord is officially called.
He said the new Iranian government is currently evaluating the talks undertaken by the previous Iranian administration.
“We are assessing and I can tell you that we have had many meetings and we will keep the window of diplomacy and negotiations open. And we will very soon return to the negotiations,” Amir-Abdollahian stressed.