Iran’s Progress Not Tied to JCPOA: President
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi affirmed the country’s seriousness in the talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal and lifting the sanctions but emphasized that Tehran does not tie its progress to the JCPOA.
"We will not tie the country's progress and settlement of the problems to the JCPOA. The Iranian negotiating team will not leave the negotiating table, either," Raisi said in the southern city of Kerman on Friday.
He noted that Iran’s progress and the economy would never be kept back on account of other people’s “smiles and scowls.” The negotiating team, Raisi said, would continue its work based on "very strong" arguments.
"We will seriously address Iran’s economic and cultural circumstances regardless of the path the (JCPOA revival) negotiations take and what will happen in the future," he added, Press TV reported.
Despite the enemies' wish, he said, Iran's affairs would be pursued with the participation of the people and the elites and the country's future will be bright. “We will not let the enemies fulfill their objective to paralyze production and destroy the Iranian economy and culture.”
Negotiations have been held between Iran and the P4+1 group of countries – Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China – in the Austrian capital of Vienna since April last year to restore the JCPOA, which was ditched by former US president Donald Trump in May 2018.
In quitting the agreement, Trump unleashed what he called the “maximum pressure” campaign to bring Iran to its knees. Washington also reinstalled unilateral sanctions against Tehran, lifted under the JCPOA. Tehran maintains that the policy has failed dismally.
Iran has cited Washington’s indecisiveness as the reason behind the protraction of the talks, as a number of key issues remain unresolved, ranging from the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions to the provision of guarantees by the American side that it will not leave the deal again.