Western powers must compensate Iran for the financial damage done by the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal in order to revive the pact, Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator said on Sunday.
Indirect talks between the US and Iran, which are due to resume in Vienna on Monday after a five-month pause, “must prioritise compensation for the violation of the deal, which includes the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions,” Ali Bagheri-Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, wrote in an op-ed for the Financial Times on Sunday, using the acronym for the formal name of the nuclear pact – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“The West needs to pay a price for having failed to uphold its part of the bargain. As in any business, a deal is a deal, and breaking it has consequences,” Bagheri-Kani said.
The US withdrew from the deal under former President Donald Trump in 2018, reimposing sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
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The Vienna talks aim to bring both the US and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 deal, under which Tehran limited its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Iran’s primary goal in the talks will be to “gain a full, guaranteed and verifiable removal of the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian people,” Bagheri-Kani said.
“Without this, the process will continue indefinitely.”
