Source to Press TV: Iran won’t sacrifice demands, national rights for artificial deadlines

Iran has entered the seventh round of negotiations in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with “clear demands and proposals” and is ready to engage as long as needed, but will not sacrifice the nation’s demands and rights for the sake of artificial deadlines, a senior member of Iran’s negotiating team tells Press TV.

“The Islamic Republic has come to Vienna with full seriousness and is negotiating with transparent demands and proposals,” the source told Press TV on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday.

The country, the source added, “stands prepared to continue intensive talks as long as needed, [but] it will not be ready to sacrifice its principled demands and the Iranian nation’s rights for mere artificial deadlines or time tables.”

Envoys from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries — Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — began on Monday the seventh round of the talks in the Austrian capital aimed at resurrecting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The following day, they participated in expert-level meetings of the working group formed to separately deal with the removal of US sanctions against Iran.

On Wednesday, they also attended the meetings of another working group on nuclear issues.

The negotiations resumed after a five-month pause over Iran’s presidential election and the formation of a new administration in the country.

Iran to focus on removal of ‘tyrannical, illegal’ US sanctions in Vienna talks, says top negotiator

Iran’s top negotiator says the main focus and priority of the Vienna negotiations is to ensure the complete and verifiable removal of all sanctions imposed on the country.

Former US president Donald Trump left the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the deal had lifted. He also placed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of his “maximum pressure” campaign.

Following a year of strategic patience, Iran decided to let go of some of the restrictions on its nuclear energy program, resorting to its legal rights under the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of a non-performance by the other side.

The US administration of President Joe Biden had said it is willing to compensate for Trump’s mistake and rejoin the deal, but it has retained the sanctions as leverage.

Iran says it won’t settle for anything less than the removal of all US bans in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that the US would not abandon the agreement again.

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