Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian welcomed on Saturday the easing of U.S. sanctions aimed at encouraging Iran to comply with the nuclear deal, but deemed the move insufficient. The Biden administration on Friday lifted some sanctions on Iran's nuclear program amidst ongoing negotiations between global powers and Iran seeking to salvage the stalled agreement.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters that "the actual and objective lifting of some sanctions can be interpreted as a goodwill gesture that the Americans speak about,” but added that this step is "insufficient." U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed several sanctions exemptions related to Iran's civil nuclear activities, reversing the Trump administration's decision to eliminate them.
This step comes as U.S. negotiators return to Vienna for a session that could either succeed or fail. The exemptions ultimately aim to bring Iran back into compliance with the 2015 agreement, which it violated following former President Donald Trump's announcement of withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 and the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.
In the short term, foreign countries and companies operating in Iran's civil nuclear sector will be exempt from the U.S. sanctions reinstated by the Trump administration in May 2020. Iran has progressively distanced itself from the terms of the nuclear agreement with global powers following the U.S. withdrawal.
Iran has demanded that the U.S. lift all sanctions it pledged to under the agreement before it resumes compliance. Amir-Abdollahian stated, "Goodwill, from our perspective, means something tangible happening on the ground." Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also described the U.S. sanction relief on Saturday as insufficient, stating that Tehran expects the sanctions specified in the nuclear agreement to be lifted.