1,000 US sanctions on Iran agreed to be lifted, 500 remain

The five rounds of the negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal have led to an agreement over the removal of some 1,000 US sanctions on Tehran, but about 500 others were still disputed.

Tehran: The five rounds of the negotiations in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal have led to an agreement over the removal of some 1,000 US sanctions on Tehran, but about 500 others were still disputed, parliamentary sources said.

The figure was offered by the head of the Iranian negotiating team, Abbas Araqchi, during a meeting on Wednesday with Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee, a news agency quoted Ebrahim Azizi, a member of the committee, as saying. The next round of talks between delegations from Iran and the P4+1, namely the UK, China, France, Russia plus Germany, is scheduled to begin later this week.

According to Araqchi, the lawmaker noted, the delegations have not yet defined a verification process by Iran of the lifting of the sanctions. On Tuesday, US. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that "hundreds of sanctions" against Iran will remain in place even if Washington re-enters the 2015 nuclear agreement and Tehran returns to full compliance with the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On June 3, Araqchi, who is also the country's Deputy Foreign Minister, expressed hope that the next round of talks in Vienna may be conclusive and lead to a final agreement. The US government under former President Donald Trump withdrew in May 2018 from the JCPOA and unilaterally re-imposed sanctions on Iran. In response, Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments from May 2019.

The JCPOA Joint Commission began the negotiations on April 6 in the Austrian capital aimed at a possible return of the US to the JCPOA and how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the 2015 landmark agreement.

(IANS)