Russia to Advocate Sanctions Removal in JCPOA Meeting

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow will advocate the lifting of sanctions on Iran and the full implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in the upcoming talks set to start in the Austrian capital Vienna at the end of this month.
The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany in 2015.
Former American president Donald Trump, however, unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed the anti-Iran sanctions that the historic deal had lifted. He also unleashed additional sanctions on Iran under other pretexts not related to the nuclear case as part of his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign, which practically deprived Tehran of all of the deal’s economic benefits.
Following a year of “strategic patience”, Iran resorted to its legal rights stipulated in the JCPOA, which grants a party the right to suspend its contractual commitments in case of non-compliance by other signatories, and let go of some of the restrictions imposed on its nuclear energy program.
Iran and the remaining parties to the accord have since April held six rounds of talks in Vienna, which began after the US administration of Joe Biden voiced willingness to rejoin the nuclear agreement, although Washington has shown an overriding propensity for maintaining the sanctions as a tool of pressure.
Envoys from Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA are expected to hold the seventh round of discussions in Vienna on November 29.
“We will advocate that the agreements that were concluded within the framework of this document in 2015 be resumed in full. Of course, this implies the return of the United States to fulfill its obligations, including the lifting of all sanctions introduced in the context of the JCPOA,” Lavrov said, Sputnik reported.
The Russian foreign minister also said that the JCPOA had been among the topics discussed in Paris in the “2+2” format between Russian and French defense and foreign ministers. “Here, we have prospects for more constructive cooperation.”
In recent weeks, there has been mounting pressure on Tehran to return to the negotiating table. The administration of Ebrahim Raeisi has announced on several occasions that it will resume the talks only to remove all of the illegal US sanctions and that it will not take part in negotiations for the sake of negotiations.
Apart from breaching the JCPOA, the US departure and its reintroduction of the sanctions are in violation of UNSC Resolution 2231 that endorses the nuclear agreement.