An Iranian senior diplomat has said that the US administration intends to lift 1000 of the sanctions while 500 of the remaining ones won’t be removed.
Senior former diplomat Alireza Sheikh Attar told our host that the Supreme Leader has clarified that all the sanctions must be removed while the process has to be verified too. “The first disagreement which continues to exist is the assertions made by US administration that the sanctions are impossible to remove because they were imposed by the Congress.”
Sheikh Attar called the US authorities claims regarding Iran’s unreliability ridiculous and said that they had asked Iran to dismantle all the machines made for the 60 percent Uranium enrichment while the Iranian side was resisting this pressure.
He added that the list of the sanctions is just the façade while the most important point is the lack of decision-making capability in the US establishment. “Yesterday, during an interview Pompeo insisted that the maximum pressure policy must continue until the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
He continued that some Americans believe that the JCPOA is a controlling tool for the Iranian nuclear program, especially after the nuclear deal was passed by the Parliament.
According to Sheikh attar, some of the Americans have concluded that the sanctions have made Iran more powerful while the other ones still insist on the maximum pressure policy. “These opinions exist in both of the US political parties.”
Talking to Program “Rooydad” Sheik Attar said that the US has imposed around 1500 sanctions on Iran and as per their claims, is ready to remove a thousand of them.
“It’s said that they’ll also open up the tap of the Oil and Banking sanctions a bit. But the other 500 sanctions which are the most important ones will remain which includes the list of the Iranian officials. They’ve also said that its removal is not guaranteed.”
He said that Congress has announced that any agreement with the Iranian side must be channeled through this institution which will make this deal impossible to conclude.
Sheikh Attar said that according to a member of Mr. Rouhani’s negotiating team that filling the gap to reach a deal has become quite difficult. “It’s because of the different approaches made by the people active in the US politics. They’re stopping the American administration from reaching a deal.”
He also analyzed the impacts which Iran’s next government may have on the negotiations and said that we have the Parliament’s official law in place and the government doesn’t have the authority to nullify it.
Sheikh Attar said that because of the US attitude, we should not tie up our economy with these negotiations.
