MP:

Raeisi to not continue JCPOA talks in Vienna format

TEHRAN (Defapress) - A member of Iran's Parliament says the next Iranian administration will not abandon Vienna talks but will neither continue them in the same format.

News ID: 83595

Date: 19 July 2021 - 03:23

"The next administration's policy is not abandoning JCPOA talks," Mojtaba Zonnour, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

"The administration believes that JCPOA has had costs and benefits; the Islamic Republic has paid the costs and now it is time to use benefits," he added.

"Raeisi's administration will not continue talks in Vienna format. Vienna format is a worse repetition of JCPOA and is jumping out of the frying pan into the fire."

Iran and the remaining JCPOA signatories have held six rounds of talks to revive the deal in Vienna. Former US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the deal in 2018 and re-imposed harsh unilateral sanctions against Iran in what has been described by Iranian officials as 'economic war' and 'economic terrorism'.

Iran, in response, reduced its commitments to the deal in series of transparent moves, noting that all the remedial measures can be reversed as soon as illegal US sanctions are removed.

Despite his promises in presidential campaigns, Joe Biden has so far failed to take a practical step in reviving the deal.