Iran’s Supreme Leader: The US will only return to its commitments under 2015 deal once Washington fully removes the sanctions.
Iran does not trust US promises on lifting sanctions and will only return to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal once Washington fully removes the measures, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, according to Reuters.
“We trusted America at the time of (former US President Barack) Obama and fulfilled our commitments. But they didn’t. The Americans said on paper that sanctions will be lifted, but they didn’t lift sanctions in practice. Their promises have no credibility for us,” he said.
“On paper they said the sanctions were lifted but they told any company that wanted to sign a contract with us that this was dangerous and risky. They scared away investors,” added the Supreme Leader.
“The Americans must lift all sanctions. We will verify it and if sanctions are … really cancelled, we will return to our obligations without any problems,” Khamenei said. “We have a lot of patience and we are not in a hurry.”
Iran has gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal in response to former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement in May of 2018.
Current President Joe Biden has expressed a desire to return to the deal but has stressed that Iran must resume compliance with it before any negotiations on a US return to the agreement.
The US recently accepted Europe’s offer to mediate conversations with Iran regarding the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran, however, rejected the proposal, claiming that the “time was not right” to hold such talks.
The US has stressed it will not offer Iran unilateral incentives to persuade it to attend talks about both sides resuming compliance with the 2015 deal.
Content retrieved from: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/298937.