Lifting Sanctions US Legal Obligation

Iran’s top diplomat said the removal of sanctions imposed by the administration of former US president Donald Trump is a “legal” and “moral” obligation of the US, advising Washington not to use them as negotiating leverage. 
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said in a post on Twitter that the sanctions campaign did not work for Trump and will not work for the administration of US President Joe Biden. 
“Release the Iranian people’s $billions held hostage abroad due to US bullying,” he said, adding, “Trump’s legacy is past its expiration date. Drop it.”
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, who is involved in the ongoing Vienna talks on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also said on twitter the bottom line is that having left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, US must first provide verifiable sanctions lifting, and Iran will then resume full implementation.
“Is the US ready?” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi asked. 
The two senior diplomats made the remarks in response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who said on Sunday that the United States has not seen yet whether Iran will move to comply with its nuclear commitments in order to have sanctions removed even as the Vienna talks have shown progress.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani last week said the United States was ready to lift trade sanctions, although European diplomats said difficult issues remained. 
Indirect talks have been underway in Vienna as the Biden administration seeks a path forward with Iran, including how Washington can return to the JCPOA and Tehran can resume full compliance with the nuclear deal with world powers.

First Step 

“Iran, I think, knows what it needs to do to come back into compliance on the nuclear side, and what we haven’t yet seen is whether Iran is ready and willing to make a decision to do what it has to do. That’s the test and we don’t yet have an answer,” Blinken told ABC News.
With a fifth round of talks in the coming days, Blinken said the discussions have clarified what both sides needed to do, telling CNN, “We’ve actually made progress.”
The United States abandoned the international pact in 2018 under Trump, who reimposed sanctions on Iran’s oil, banking and shipping sectors.
Biden, who succeeded Trump in January, has said he believes Iran is seriously engaging in talks but that it remained unclear what steps Tehran would actually take to comply with the deal, which was cemented when Biden was vice president under former US president Barack Obama.
If both sides can return to the original deal, Blinken told CNN on Sunday, “then we can use that as a foundation both to look at how to make the deal itself potentially longer and stronger, and also engage on these other issues, whether it’s Iran’s [alleged] support for terrorism ... its destabilizing support for different proxies throughout the Middle East.”
But, he said on ABC, “The first thing that we need to do is put the nuclear problem back in the box.”