U.S. negotiators have not agreed to lift sanctions on Iran, a State Department spokesperson told Forbes on Wednesday, contradicting an Iranian official’s claim earlier in the day.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) and President-elect Ebrahim Raisi (R) speak to press members … [+]
ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
The spokesperson denied in an email to Forbes that the U.S. had agreed to lift sanctions on insurance, oil and shipping industries imposed by President Trump and on people in the inner circle of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Claims that more than 1,000 sanctions would be removed were made to state-run media Wednesday by Mahmoud Vaezi, chief of staff to President Hassan Rouhani, according to Reuters.
The State Department said that addressing “sanctions-related steps that the United States would need to take” are part of the talks that the U.S. and Iran have held about re-entering the multilateral nuclear agreement that President Trump withdrew from in 2018.
The spokesperson said the talks have progressed and the special envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, plans to return soon for a new round of talks.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“During negotiations of this complexity, negotiators try to draft text that capture the main issues,” the spokesperson said in an email Wednesday afternoon, “but again, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
KEY CONTEXT
Iran and Western countries paused negotiations in Vienna on Sunday after news that Iran’s conservative chief justice won its presidential election. Ebrahim Raisi, who the U.S. sanctioned in 2019 for being complicit in mass executions, is expected to be less flexible than the administration of Rouhani, a moderate who negotiated the 2015 deal that lifted U.S. sanctions in exchange for Iran shutting down parts of its nuclear program. Raisi, who takes office in August, said Monday he was committed to negotiating the nuclear agreement but that Iran will not give up its ballistic missiles, nor would it stop funding or arming militias in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East. Raisi also said he would not meet with President Biden.
Forbes
