Nuclear Talks Must End All Sanctions: Iranian Cleric

In an address to the worshippers attending the Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said Iran has made a clear decision to take part in the nuclear negotiations provided that all nuclear-related, human right-related and other sanctions are lifted.

He also reminded the parties engaged in the talks on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that the Islamic Republic will never approve of the talks of attrition.

The cleric then lashed out at the accomplices of the US that have refused to criticize Washington for its withdrawal from the JCPOA but continue to use the language of threat against Iran.

“We have no confusion or ambiguity in the course of (nuclear) negotiations, but the one who has breached the deal must compensate,” he underlined.

The European Union acted as the coordinator for the talks that led to conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the historic 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world countries.

The US, however, left the agreement in 2018 and re-introduced the sanctions that the accord had lifted.

Following a year of strategic patience, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in Article 26 of the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.

Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have held six rounds of talks in the Austrian capital, which began after the administration of US President Joe Biden voiced a willingness to rejoin the nuclear agreement, to examine the prospect of the sanctions’ fresh removal.

The talks were, however, put on hold in the run-up to Iran’s presidential elections in June so that the Islamic Republic could go through a period of government transition.