London, IRNA – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kani has made a tour to Europe to highlight the necessity of lifting US sanction as the axis of the talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna as the new round of the talks is approaching.
Iran has set three conditions for the talks in Vienna to achieve an agreement, which include US’ mea culpa with the reversal of its policy on the JCPOA, lifting of all sanctions imposed after US withdrawal from the deal, and guarantees that no next US administration would renege on the deal.
In this regard, Bagheri-Kani started his trip to Europe early this week to have bilateral meetings with officials of the three European participants of the JCPOA – namely the UK, France, and Germany, as well as Enrique Mora, the EU’s deputy foreign policy chief, to outline Iran’s position on how the talks would advance.
In the first leg of his European tour, the Iranian deputy foreign minister went to Paris and met with French officials. He, then, said in an interview that France’s taking rotating presidency of the Council of the EU next year would enable Paris to have an extraterritorial role making a good opportunity for Iran to elevate tie with the country.
Bagheri-Kani rejected the French foreign minister’s statements on the talks in Vienna, saying that there wouldn’t be any nuclear talks as the nuclear issue was concluded in 2015 when the JCPOA was agreed upon by Iran and the six world powers.
The main issue to be discussed in Vienna is the consequences of US withdrawal from the deal, he added.
Bagheri-Kani then had meetings with his German counterpart and other officials in Berlin, where German officials repeated France’s claims that the talks in Vienna should be resumed from where they were left.
The Iranian diplomat then responded to these statements in an interview in London – the third leg of trip, saying that these talks had nothing to do with the JCPOA itself because Iran had not left the deal.
This was the US that left the deal and it has to make preparations to rejoin the deal by removing all sanctions imposed on Iran, he said.
In London, Bagheri-Kani met his British counterpart and had a positive evaluation of their conversation, saying that it was a step forward.
In an interview with IRNA, he said that the main issue in Vienna talks should be US’ violation of the JCPOA, its violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, resumption of sanctions lifted by the deal, and imposition of new sanctions.
Bagheri-Kani then left London for Madrid to meet Mora and the Spanish Deputy Foreign Minister Ángeles Moreno.
Concluding his European trip, Bagheri-Kani said in a tweet on Friday night the gist of his conversations in four European capitals was that the US sanctions should be effectively removed and there should be guarantees that no withdrawal would happen like the one in 2018.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
