Iran wants all US sanctions to be lifted at nuclear talks that resume Monday so that the Middle Eastern country can continue to export crude oil, Iran’s foreign minister said.
Diplomats from the US, UK, France and Germany have become pessimistic about the talks as Israel warned that Iran was preparing to enrich uranium to military-grade levels.
What did Iran say?
Iran is returning to the negotiating table in Vienna at 6 p.m. local time, with global negotiators hoping to reinstate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) the US abandoned in 2018 under former President Donald Trump.
Iran said that it was ready to return to the terms of the arrangement if US sanctions were dropped.
“The most important issue for us is to reach a point where, firstly, Iranian oil can be sold easily and without hindrance,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying by state media. “The money from the oil [sales] is to be deposited as foreign currency in Iranian banks – so we can enjoy all the economic benefits stipulated in [the] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
Assessments of Iran’s lucrative oil industry show that the Middle Eastern country has seen its exports drop from 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2018 to as low as 200,000 bpd.
Sanctions on Iranian oil sales were reimposed by the US after it withdrew from the JCPOA.
Separately, on Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said it was “intolerable” for the West to grant anything other than the terms of the JCPOA agreed in 2015.
What are the complexities of the talks?
The nuclear negotiations, now in their eighth round, were suspended for five months after hardline Ebrahim Raisi became president in Iran earlier in 2021.
Israel voiced some of the strongest concerns about Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which increased after the US pulled out of the JCPOA and imposed harsh sanctions in 2018.
While Iran insists that its nuclear program is peaceful, Israel warned in November the Islamic Republic had taken steps to enrich uranium to the 90% required for weapons.
But Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said “Israel is not opposed to any deal,” on Monday.
“We oppose a deal that does not enable true oversight over the Iranian nuclear program, nor over the Iranian money, nor over the Iranian terror network,” Lapid told his told parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee in Jerusalem.
The talks in the Austrian capital involve the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China — the remaining signatories to the JCPOA since the US’ departure.
But while the Russian ambassador to the UN in Vienna Mikail Ulyanov tweeted that the Iranian statement was “a positive message,” European and US negotiators recently expressed frustration at the lack of progress.
Last week the US said negotiations could wind down in a few weeks with European diplomats warning they are “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”
jc/msh (Reuters, AFP, AP)
Iran demands oil export permission before nuclear talks in Vienna
Source: Pinoy Pop News
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