TEHRAN – Iran had once negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal – officially called the JCPOA - and it will not renegotiate it anymore, but it will pursue the lifting of sanctions, Mahmoud Vaezi, the Iranian president’s chief of staff, said on Friday.

“The JCPOA had been negotiated once and it will not be renegotiated,” Vaezi told Iran’s state news agency IRNA on Friday, adding that Tehran’s priority is to lift the U.S. sanctions on the country.

“It’s up to them whether they return to the JCPOA or not but what’s important for us is the lifting of sanctions against the Iranian people,” he continued.

Commenting on the start of Joe Biden’s presidency, Vaezi said Iran expects him not to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor because the Trump administration has brought the U.S. into disrepute and caused the Iranians to hate the U.S.

The president’s chief of staff also ruled out any contact between Iran and the U.S. but he said things will change if the new U.S. administration changes tack on Iran and implement its obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

On Monday, Vaezi said the new U.S. administration can return to the 2015 nuclear deal only after lifting all sanctions that were imposed on Iran during the Trump administration.

Responding to a question on whether the Iranian government has set any preconditions for a possible U.S. return to the nuclear deal, Vaezi said, “What we say is that whatever has happened under Trump’s administration must go back to the pre-Trump era. We are serious about this issue.”

“Therefore, all kinds of sanctions on companies and individuals should be lifted,” he told Tasnim.

Vaezi outlined how Iran would deal with a possible return of the U.S. to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He pointed out that Iranian officials have made it crystal clear that in the next era, Iran’s policy would be “commitment for commitment”, “implementation for implementation,” and “announcement for announcement”.