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No indirect diplomacy between Iran, US: Security source tells Press TV

Tuesday, 16 March 2021 9:04 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 17 March 2021 4:35 AM ]

A security source has dismissed recent remarks by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan about ongoing indirect diplomacy between Iran and the United States over Washington's return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Speaking to Press TV on Tuesday, the source said on the condition of anonymity that the US officials’ claims about indirect talks with Iran are only meant to get President Joe Biden out of crisis.

The source, that is close to the Supreme National Security Council, added that all Iranian authorities are obligated to implement the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, a law passed last December by the Iranian Parliament.

The legislation called on the government to take further steps away from the 2015 nuclear deal after the deadline set by Iran for the sanctions removal was missed.

The source noted that no talks will be held between Tehran and Washington until the full lifting of sanctions.

Sullivan claimed on Friday that “diplomacy with Iran is ongoing, just not in a direct fashion at the moment,”

“There are communications through the Europeans and through others that enable us to explain to the Iranians what our position is with respect to the compliance for compliance approach and to hear what their position is,” Sullivan added.

In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany, signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was ratified in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Three years later, however, former US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the JCPOA and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the deal.

The new US administration, under President Joe Biden, has signaled a desire to rejoin the JCPOA, but conditioned the move on Tehran’s resumption of the commitments it has suspended under the accord in response to the US withdrawal in 2018 and the other parties’ failure to meet their end of the bargain.

But Tehran says the US, as the first party that reneged on its commitments, should take the first steps towards the deal’s revival and unconditionally remove all the sanctions imposed under Trump in a verifiable manner.

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