Iran’s Parliament speaker said Tehran does not care whether or not the next US administration will rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, but the critical issue is the practical lifting of sanctions under the JCPOA.

Speaking at a Sunday session of the Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the West must realize that it ought to recognize the Iranian nation’s rights and pay a proportional price for exerting pressure on the people of Iran.

“The JCPOA is not a holy agreement for us, but the Islamic Republic has agreed on it with certain conditions for the removal of the sanctions. Thus, the US’ return to JCPOA doesn’t matter to us, but we care only about the practical and tangible lifting of the sanctions,” he added.

Iran’s main strategy in dealing with the enemies is to neutralize the sanctions, which is preliminary to the removal of the sanctions, he added, stressing the need to generate strength like what the late Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was doing.

The speaker described Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei’s support for a parliamentary law on the lifting of sanctions as a reminder that the era of imposing sanctions on Iran without paying a cost has ended.

From the viewpoint of Iran, the sanctions are deemed to be lifted only when Tehran sells oil freely, the Central Bank receives revenues through official mechanisms, and Iranian business people work freely with the world, Qalibaf stressed, adding that in that case Iran will resume honoring its JCPOA commitments.

In remarks in November 2020, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the Iranian officials to concentrate efforts on thwarting and overcoming the sanctions instead of seeking their removal, pointing to the unsuccessful outcome of years of negotiations for lifting the sanctions.

The Leader slammed the sanctions as a “bitter reality” and a “crime” that the US and its European allies have committed against the Iranian nation, noting, “Such a crime has been committed against the Iranian nation for years, but it has intensified over the past three years.”

The two remedies for dealing with the sanctions are “nullifying and overcoming the sanctions” and their “removal”, Ayatollah Khamenei noted, adding, “We once tried the path of removal of the sanction and negotiated for several years, but it did not yield results.”

Describing efforts to overcome the sanctions and countering them as the proper option, the Leader said, “This path might have difficulties and problems at the beginning, but it will have a successful outcome.”