Raisi Reiterates Previous Conditions: America Must Guarantee Permanent Removal of Sanctions
Ibrahim Raisi, President of Iran, on Thursday in an interview reiterated the Islamic Republic’s conditions in negotiations and called for providing guarantees for the “permanent removal” of American sanctions against Tehran with the aim of reviving the JCPOA agreement.
President Raisi, who is traveling to Shanghai Summit in Uzbekistan, made these remarks Thursday evening, September 15, in an interview with Al Jazeera network.
He said: “American sanctions must be lifted to achieve a nuclear agreement and there must be guarantees for their permanent removal.”
Iran’s President also tied the progress of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West to the resolution of safeguards issues, or the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He said: “If we have reliable guarantees and permanent removal of sanctions, not temporary removal, and if there is a sustainable solution for safeguards issues, there is certainly a possibility of reaching an agreement.”
Ibrahim Raisi, without referring to a recent statement by the Board of Governors against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, along with other officials, raised the issue of “political and baseless accusations” against the Islamic Republic by the West and international organizations.
He called for a decision to permanently remove sanctions at a time when a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives is set to introduce a bill to codify and make permanent U.S. sanctions against Iran.
As the Fox News network reported, the bill to be introduced is called the “Sanctions Iran Act” (SISA) and is designed to make permanent the 1996 Iran sanctions law “in order to protect the United States and its allies from Iran’s nuclear threat.”
After months of negotiations over reviving the JCPOA agreement under Raisi’s administration, America announced that Iran is not an “eager partner” for reviving this agreement.
Joseph Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, who had given hope of reaching an agreement in recent months, announced this week that negotiations to revive the JCPOA nuclear agreement and the mutual return of Iran and America to this agreement have reached a deadlock.
This is while the Islamic Republic rejects being in a deadlock situation and has announced that it is ready for constructive cooperation with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency to permanently close Iran’s file in this organization.
As Iran and America are negotiating indirectly over the JCPOA, Ibrahim Raisi said in his interview with Al Jazeera that “the time for face-to-face talks with America has not yet come.”
He added: “Direct negotiations with America over a nuclear agreement are of no use, and America must take confidence-building measures with the Iranian side.”
Source: Radio Farda
