Kerry, Zarif to discuss US sanctions relief for Iran: Kirby

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will discuss American sanctions relief during their meeting in New York on Friday amid Tehran's complaints that Washington is not honoring its end of last year's historic nuclear agreement, the US State Department has said.

Iran and the P5+1 group -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany –  reached a conclusion on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14, 2015 in the Austrian capital of Vienna following two years of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Under the Vienna deal, Iran agreed to put some restrictions on its nuclear energy program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions that had been imposed on the Islamic Republic based on the unfounded accusation that Tehran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear program.

Top Iranian officials have said that the United States is not honoring its end of the nuclear accord. Zarif said on Monday he would urge Washington to “seriously” live up to its side of the deal and stop interfering in Iran’s banking and financial ties with other states.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily briefing on Thursday that US sanctions relief will be on the agenda when Kerry and Zarif meet on Friday, their second meeting this week.

"I fully expect that they will continue to talk about the sanctions relief process and the degree to which banks, foreign and domestic, as well as institutions, foreign and domestic, are evaluating their options under the JCPOA," he said.

The two officials will address "the degree to which they have before them a sufficient level of understanding to make decisions with respect to sanctions relief," he added. 

However, Kirby played down expectations that the talks would yield any concrete proposals, adding that representatives of the US Treasury Department would not participate in the meeting. 

Kerry acknowledged on Monday that Iran has so far received only about five percent of its frozen assets since it reached the historic nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of countries.

Iran has reaped just $3 billion out of a total of over $100 billion in previously frozen assets, Kerry said, adding that Tehran will get about $55 billion in the long run, under the nuclear deal.

Iran has criticized the US for refusing to grant it access to the global financial system. Tehran says such access is one of the goals of the nuclear deal, and has urged Washington to stop preventing non-American banks from dealing with Iran.

Kirby denied that the US is trying to prevent Western banks and corporations from doing business with Iran.

"We certainly are not trying to become an obstacle in any way of foreign banks and institutions working with Iran through the sanctions relief process and doing legitimate business with Iran," he said.

"We believe we are working hard to try to explain what the obligations are, what the responsibilities are and what the opportunities are for foreign institutions and banks under the JCPOA," he stated.

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