Sanctions not lifted thoroughly in practice

Speaking at a press conference held Sunday on the anniversary of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said sanctions must be lifted in practice so that their influence counld be felt in people’s lives.

He ensured that Iranian nation’s resistance against sanctions was due to one demand “nuclear energy is our inalienable right”; we could establish the right which was the main demand and motto of Iranian nation, he added.

The world respects our rights, he said, and our main demand and slogan have been realized; “we don’t repeat the slogan again in meetings and gatherings; people have accepted that their right has been established.”

Nuclear negotiations have removed only nuclear sanctions, Araghchi stressed, however not completely in practice due to the other side’s failure to keep its promises and also the time consuming nature of the removal process.

Deputy FM said, “Iran has objected to the opposite side and in this regard we held talks expressing our protests and demands to them.”

This of course does not mean that we have no breakthrough in nuclear negotiations, senior member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team said. “Iran has seen developments in banking and financial fields after sanctions removal; we face some problems in communications with major banks, which is due to non-JCPOA reasons which have not provided the conditions for it to happen.”

“The Americans have failed to keep their promises,” he added, “we believe that the responsibilities of the other party have not been realized yet and in some cases they have created challenges for us.”

Araghchi underlined that any of the parties involved in nuclear talks willing to violate JCPOA, must pay its political costs.

“I do not think the US would want to violate the nuclear agreement or neglet it thoroughly, however, if they do that, we’ll fire every single sheets of JCPOA according to what Leader of the Islamic Revolution once told,” Araghchi noted.

He denounced the academic sanctions, saying based on JCPOA and resolution 2231 none of the Iranian students should be denied studying at universities abroad.

Pointing to Ban Ki-moon’s recent draft report on the implementation of JCPOA, Araghchi said Mr. Ban’s report was unbalanced and biased.

“UN secretary general is required to submit his report to the Security Council every six months,” Araghchi said, adding the US has pushed him over the issue.

Deputy FM went on to say that Iran’s missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads and no one can say missile test violates the soul or body of JCPOA.