Iran says talks with West must be based on building confidence in return for lifting sanctions

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the formula of talks with the West must be based on building confidence in return for lifting sanctions.

News ID: 5115

Date: 16 September 2024 - 13:31

TABNAK, Sep, 16: “First of all, there should be an appropriate base to restart negotiations. Then we enter into talks the same as the JCPOA and based on the previous formula, which means there should be building confidence in return for removing sanctions,” he said in National TV channel.

He also continued Iran is ready for sensible, logical and dignifying talks with Europe with lifting sanctions and removing concerns of the two sides.

The foreign minister further warned that Tehran would start contacts with the Europeans and would not wait for the United States to start negotiations.

“We will not agree to any agreement until our interests are secured,” Araghchi said.

He said, “It doesn't matter who the other party is we will negotiate in which our interests are secured.”

“Of course, it has its own conditions with the Americans. There were contacts in the previous government and we will continue in this government if necessary. “It is a fact that the Americans are not ready to negotiate now,” he said.

The top Iranian diplomat said Europeans should understand Iran's concern. “If they have concerns, we also have concerns.”

He went on to say that Iran has “a problem with Europe in the field of economic sanctions. The way is not to use failed tools.”

On Tuesday, the US Treasury and the State Department imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and nine entities based in Iran and Russia.

Included in the sanctions were ships that regularly bring cargo across the Caspian Sea between Iran and Russia, the Treasury said.

Since the war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, the Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions brushed off the accusations of interfering in the conflict in the realms of providing military equipment and assistance to Russia.

The negotiations to restore the 2015 nuclear deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- began in April 2021, three years after the US unilaterally withdrew from the UN Security Council-endorsed agreement and began to target Iran’s economy with tough economic sanctions.

Iran has criticized the lack of will on the side of the US and the E3 to revive the deal and has ramped up its nuclear activities in response to their non-compliance.

Tehran began to gradually remove a cap set in the JCPOA on its nuclear activities at bi-monthly intervals. At the time, Iran also maintained that if the Iranian economy was shielded from sanctions, it would reverse its nuclear decision.

JCPOA talks have been on pause since August 2022, with Iran blaming a lack of political will on the part of US President Joe Biden’s administration to undo the damage caused to the multilateral nuclear deal by the previous US administration.

Former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the UNSC-endorsed agreement in May 2018, imposing severe economic sanctions against Tehran while Iran was adhering to its commitments under the deal and even continued to do so for a year after the US withdrawal.

Tehran scaled back its commitments to the JCPOA in a series of pre-announced and clear steps after witnessing the other parties' failure to secure its interest under the agreement.