Ayatollah Khamenei: Verification of US sanctions removal means Iran should be able to sell its oil

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says any US claim to having removed Iran’s sanctions must be verified by Tehran and this means that the Islamic Republic should be able to sell its oil under normal conditions and receive its money.

The Leader’s remarks came in a post on his Instagram page on Thursday as an Iranian negotiating team is in the Austrian capital city of Vienna to discuss conditions for the revival of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with other signatories to the deal.

“Verification [of US sanctions removal] means [being capable of] selling oil in an official manner, with ease and under normal conditions, and its money be received by Iran,” the Leader added.

The Leader’s Instagram account also released a video in which Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated that Tehran is in no hurry for Washington to come back to the nuclear agreement.

The Leader added that the signatories of the nuclear agreement failed to abide by their commitments under the deal, noting that the decision by the Iranian government and parliament to rollback Tehran’s nuclear commitments was right. 

Ayatollah Khamenei stated that commitment on one side should be reciprocated by commitment on the other side and the US must remove all sanctions if the West wants Iran to return to JCPOA compliance.

The Leader said Tehran will return to full compliance with the nuclear deal once it verifies sanctions have been really removed by the US. 

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said other signatories to the deal have no right to set conditions for Tehran as long as they have not fulfilled their obligations, emphasizing that this is Iran’s definitive policy from which Tehran will not step back.

The United States began imposing heavy economic sanctions against Iran in 2018 after former US President Donald Trump scrapped the JCPOA, which was signed by Iran and world powers, as a result of which Iran was barred from economic transactions with the rest of the world, including selling its oil and receiving its money.

While the Trump administration described its anti-Iran measures as the “maximum pressure” policy, Tehran slammed the measures as “economic war,” “economic terrorism” and also “medical terrorism,” maintaining that the sanctions have severely harmed Iranians but failed to bring the nation to its knees.

The new US administration of Joe Biden has conceded that the so-called maximum pressure campaign has failed, promising to replace it with a new policy, but it has so far failed to take any practical steps in that direction and has actually followed suit with Trump-era policies toward Iran.

Iran remained fully compliant with the deal for an entire year but as the remaining European parties failed to fulfill their end of the bargain, Tehran began in May 2019 to scale back its JCPOA commitments in several steps under Articles 26 and 36 of the accord covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Tehran has announced that in order to reverse its remedial actions to reduce JCPOA commitments, the US must first remove all unilateral sanctions it has re-imposed on the country in an illegal manner and then Iran must verify that sanctions have been actually removed and do not bar Iran’s economic exchanges with the world. Only then, Iran says, it will return to full compliance with the JCPOA.

Ayatollah Khamenei had already said during a meeting with commanders, pilots, and staff members of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) that Iran will retrace its nuclear countermeasures once the United States lifts its sanctions in a manner that could be verifiable by Tehran.

“Iran will return to its JCOPA obligations once the US fully lifts its sanctions in action and not in words or on paper, and once the sanction relief is verified by Iran,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Earlier on Thursday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, who leads the country’s negotiating team in Vienna, said the US has to remove all unilateral and illegal sanctions it has imposed on Iran in one step before expecting the Islamic Republic to resume full compliance with the JCPOA.

Abbas Araqchi made the remarks during an interview with Press TV in Vienna on Thursday after a meeting with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi, saying, “The US must lift anti-Iran sanctions [and only] then Tehran would resume compliance with [the] JCPOA.”

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