EU Fresh Sanctions on Iran Meant to Undermine JCPOA Talks: Araqchi
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi decried the European Union’s move to impose new sanctions on Tehran and ignore a recent act of nuclear terrorism on Iran’s enrichment facility in Natanz, saying such measures are meant to undermine the JCPOA talks.
“The Europeans not only ignored this important act of sabotage, but also they were busy imposing new sanctions on Iran and that was totally unacceptable,” Araqchi told Press TV in Vienna on Thursday.
“We told them that even your human rights sanctions that you imposed two days ago, we consider them as JCPOA-related sanctions, because right in the middle of negotiations you decided to impose sanctions and that is certainly (meant) to undermine the current negotiations and to undermine the JCPOA altogether,” he added.
Pointing to the new sanctions, the chief Iranian negotiator said this is a significant non-performance by the European Union.
Araqchi said the participants in the latest round of the JCPOA Joint Commission had “very tough exchanges of views” at the Thursday session, but they all agreed to move forward.
“Although we still have differences, we share this common interest that we have to move forward, and we have to expedite this process in order to come to a conclusion as soon as possible,” he noted.
If there is good faith on the US side, the way is quite clear, he emphasized.
“They have to lift all sanctions and we need the list of sanctions and this should be our job in this round of discussion,” Araqchi added, asserting that without a list, “I don’t think we can make any progress.”
According to Araqchi, Tehran is also prepared to make a similar list on the nuclear measures that it should take.
“With this understanding, the joint commission decided to mandate the two working groups on the nuclear and sanctions-lifting (parts) to restart the job this afternoon and try to make a concrete, specified list of measures to be taken by Iran and the US,” he said.
The deputy foreign minister further underlined the need for the US to prepare a list of sanctions, because without it “nothing will happen.”
“I cannot say that I am optimistic, but I think we are on a good track, although we had the negative impacts of last days’ developments and we have to somehow manage that,” he stated.
Araqchi also noted that the list of sanctions should include third parties who have been sanctioned because of their cooperation with Iran.
“Before we see the list, we cannot judge whether it is as complete as we want or not,” he concluded.
