Rouhani: Iran wants full implementation of JCPOA, neither more nor less

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says what Tehran is seeking through the ongoing talks in Vienna is the full implementation of the 2015 nuclear accord, neither more nor less.

“The JCPOA must be implemented effectively,” Rouhani said on Wednesday. “We want the strict implementation of the JCPOA, not a single word more or less.”

He said Iran does not to put forward the demand during the ongoing talks, but suggested that Tehran will in the future press for compensation for the damages US sanctions inflicted upon the country.

Iran, said Rouhani, suffered hundreds of billions of dollars in damages under the US sanctions.

The US slapped several rounds of severe economic sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the JCPOA under former US president Donald Trump in May 2018. Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the landmark agreement and repeal the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.

Tehran says it pursues the full removal of all the sanctions the US imposed or reimposed after its withdrawal from the deal. The Islamic Republic also maintains that it needs to verify the sanctions removal before it comes back to honoring all of its nuclear undertakings within the JCPOA.

Rouhani explained that the resurrection of the nuclear pact must include three steps, the first of which is the removal of the sanctions by the United States.

“The second step is verification [by Iran], and we can announce [the result of] the verification in a short span of time,” he said.

The third step, the president continued, will be Iran’s complete resumption of its nuclear obligations which “we will execute thoroughly.”

Rouhani said the three steps should be followed by confidence-building measures, asserting that Tehran will comply with the deal as long as it feels that all signatories to the deal are sincere, serious and determined to resolve the issue.

“Of course, this should not take a long time, but rather, we must finish this and reach results in a short time,” the Iranian chief executive stated.

Rouhani: Verification not very complicated

The president’s remarks came a day after the participants of the JCPOA Joint Commission and the US concluded the talks in order to return to their respective capitals for consultations. The next round of talks is expected to begin next week.

According to Rouhani, during the Tuesday meeting, the two sides discussed the issue of verification thoroughly. He added that “verification is not that complicated.”

He said the other parties seem to be serious, but they need to provide a detailed list of the sanctions that must be removed.

“In some steps, we took them to be serious, but in other steps, they spoke ambiguously,” he said.

Rouhani also stressed that all of the steps the Iranian negotiators have taken so far have been within the framework defined by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Ayatollah Khamenei has stated that Iran would reverse its nuclear measures only after all the sanctions are removed in one step that must be verified by the Islamic Republic.

He has also warned against protracted talks on restoring the JCPOA.

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