Irans top negotiator to Vienna talks on the removal of anti-Iran sanctions says all participants in the first meeting of the seventh round of talks have agreed that removing sanctions must be the main focus of negotiations.
Ali Baqeri-Kani made the remark while talking to reporters following the end of the first meeting of the nuclear deal's participants in the Austrian capital on Monday.
Baqeri-Kani said he was optimistic after the first meetings in Vienna, adding that all parties agreed that focus of the talks should be lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran after the US unilateral withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
He added that the participants also agreed that a special working group should start its work on Tuesday to discuss "the removal of illegal and brutal sanctions" imposed on the Iranian nation.
"I believe that this is a great achievement that all member states of the P4+1 group accepted Iran's rightful request and emphasized that the state of the US regime's illegal sanctions against our people must be clarified first and then other issues be discussed," Iran's top negotiator said.
Baqeri, who also serves as Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, said guarantees should be given to Tehran that no new sanctions will be imposed on the country.
During the meeting, we emphasized that the main factor behind the current conditions is actions taken by a country, which left the agreement in violation of the accord and the United Nations Security Council resolution [that upheld it], and also reinstated past sanctions [on Iran] in contravention of international laws and regulations while imposing new sanctions as well, Baqeri-Kani said.
Envoys from Iran and the remaining signatories to the JCPOA Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China ended the first meeting of the seventh round of discussions in Vienna on Monday. The negotiations were paused in June, when Iran held its presidential election. Since then, the new Iranian administration has been reviewing the details of the six rounds of discussions held under the previous administration.
Iran has already clarified that the talks will not focus on nuclear issues, noting that those issues were already been resolved through negotiations, which led to the conclusion of the JCPOA.
The Islamic Republic says it will not settle for anything less than removal of all US sanctions at once and in a verifiable manner. Tehran has also called on the other parties to make the most of the occasion, warning that the window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.
The United States unilaterally abandoned the multilateral nuclear deal in 2018 despite Irans full compliance with its nuclear undertakings, as repeatedly certified by the UN nuclear agency. The US then unleashed a maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which practically deprived the country of all of the deals economic benefits.
The US withdrawal came while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had issued 15 consecutive reports verifying Irans full compliance with its nuclear obligations under the JCPOA.
Russia's lead negotiator says Monday Vienna meeting 'started quite successfully'
Russia's lead negotiator to the Vienna talks says the first meetingof the JCPOA Joint Commission was held "quite successfully" as the participants agreed to take "further immediate steps".
"The meeting of the Joint Commission on #JCPOA is over. The participants agreed on further immediate steps during the seventh round of negotiations which started quite successfully," Mikhail Ulyanov said in a post on Twitter.