USA TODAY International Edition
Iran to start limiting monitoring of nuke sites
Envoy: Sanctions must end before pact revived
Iran’s top diplomat insisted Sunday the United States must lift economic sanctions imposed on it by the Trump administration before the 2015 nuclear pact can be revived.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ’s remarks came as Tehran confirmed it would begin limiting additional international monitoring of its nuclear sites Tuesday, a move that for Iran represents another lean away from the accord exited by the U. S. in 2018.
Zarif ’s comments also follow an offer from President Joe Biden’s administration to meet with Iran and other world powers involved in negotiating the agreement.
“The United States must return to the deal and lift all sanctions. ... The United States is addicted to sanctions, but they should know that Iran will not yield to pressure,” Zarif said in an interview with Iran’s state- run, English- language broadcaster Press TV.
Zarif did not confirm Iran was rejecting Biden’s offer of diplomacy.
The nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, was negotiated by the U. S. with Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.
His weekend remarks reflect the position Iran has held since the U. S. pulled out of the nuclear deal. Iran has said it will resume negotiations with the U. S. only when the sanctions are lifted because Washington, not Tehran, exited the accord.
The U. S. has been unwilling to take that first step, although the Biden administration’s offer Thursday to hold talks was its first public attempt at renewed diplomacy. Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a CBS interview Sunday that the U. S. has “begun to communicate” with Iran regarding detained U. S. nationals.
Zarif said International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) surveillance cameras at some of Iran’s nuclear sites would be shut off Tuesday, in line with a law passed by Iran’s Parliament. These cameras were installed as part of an “additional protocol” of the nuclear deal. Also, some nuclear inspectors will be barred from the sites.
The protocol is a voluntary agreement between Tehran and the IAEA reached as part of the nuclear agreement. Under the measure, the agency “collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras,” it said in 2017, adding that it had placed “2,000 tamperproof seals on nuclear material and equipment.”
Iran’s parliament in December approved a bill that would suspend part of IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities if European signatories did not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions by Tuesday. The IAEA is the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi is in Iran to discuss how to find “a mutually agreeable solution for the IAEA to continue essential verification activities in the country.”
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the U. S. from the nuclear deal. But Biden and his secretary of State, Antony Blinken, have repeatedly said the U. S. would rejoin the agreement – and lift the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration – only if Iran first came back into compliance.
In the Press TV interview, Zarif said the new access restrictions placed on the nuclear sites, as well as previous steps Iran has taken to enrich more uranium, were reversible.
“This is not a deadline for the world. This is not an ultimatum,” Zarif said.
Mohammad Farahani, editor- in- chief of a news agency linked to Iran’s judiciary, said in an email that the U. S. sanctions that have targeted Iran’s oil and banking sectors have hindered access to basic and humanitarian goods.
“Iranians want these cruel sanctions lifted,” he said, adding that he saw no path to new diplomacy before the sanctions were addressed.