US Needs to End Addiction to Sanctions

The United States has no other way but to quit its addition to sanctions and show respectful behavior toward Tehran, an Iranian senior diplomat said. 
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks in reaction to the US recent move to impose sanctions on four Iranian nationals over what they called plotting to kidnap an American-Iranian journalist based in New York.
He expressed regret that Washington’s present authorities are stepping in the failed path of the previous administration. 
“Supporters and beneficiaries of sanctions in America have found their toolbox empty due to Iran’s maximum resistance and are now trying to keep their sanctions regime alive by resorting to a Hollywood scenario,” he said, ISNA reported. 
Former US president Donald Trump reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal. 
Iran has withstood the pressure and tried to neutralize the effects of sanctions, while taking steps away from its commitments under the deal in reaction.
Despite campaign promises to rejoin the agreement, new US President Joe Biden has refused to remove the restrictions, and is now adding to them, trying to win more concessions out of Iran in a fresh set of negotiations in Vienna, Austria.  
Tehran demands a full and effective lifting of all bans before it reverses its nuclear steps and resumes full compliance with the accord.  
Iranian authorities have censured Washington for using Trump’s illegal sanctions as an instrument of pressure in the Vienna talks.
The negotiations have reached a halt for which both sides blame each other.
The US says the ball is in Iran’s court while Tehran maintains it is Washington which refuses to meet its obligations unconditionally.  

Kidnap Plot Theory 

In a statement released on Friday, the US Treasury Department said that its Office of Foreign Assets Control was designating “four Iranian intelligence operatives,” claiming that they “targeted a US citizen in the United States and Iranian dissidents in other countries as part of a wide-ranging campaign to silence critics of the Iranian government.”
Earlier in July, American prosecutors had charged the four with plotting to kidnap a journalist who Reuters confirmed as being Masih Alinejad.
The US Justice Department claimed that Iranian agents researched possible ways to move her out of the United States, including hiring a “military-style” speedboat to whisk her from Manhattan and transfer her by sea to Venezuela.
Khatibzadeh dismissed the allegations at the time, describing them as “so baseless and ridiculous that it is not really worth answering.”
In a statement on the sanctions, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States “remains aware of ongoing Iranian interest in targeting other American citizens, including current and former US officials.” He did not elaborate on his allegation. 
Those blacklisted include Alireza Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kia Sadeghi and Omid Noori, the Treasury Department said.
The sanctions block all property of the four Iranians in the United States or in US control, and prohibit any transactions between them and American citizens, according to the statement. Other non-Americans who conduct certain transactions with the four could also be subjected to US sanctions.