TEHRAN — Spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament suggested on Sunday that now that the Vienna talks are close to completion sanctions against Iran under CAATSA should be lifted.

“The talks have reached a very sensitive stage and they have progressed well so far, and if it had continued in the same way in the past, we would have reached a win-win agreement,” Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini said. 

However, the legislator said that negotiating partners have to reach a clear conclusion on a few sensitive issues.

“If we do not reach an agreement on these cases, the principles of the agreement will not be easily grasped. We are ready to reduce the Westerners’ concerns about nuclear activities and we have both the seriousness and good faith in this regard,” Meshkini noted. 

He added that Iran is working within the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards agreement and is ready to address concerns about its nuclear program.

“It is not a question of the level of enrichment, and we must have all our activities based on the safeguards of the Agency so that we can address their concerns,” the MP added.

The Vienna talks are aimed at lifting sanctions imposed against Iran illegally.
 
Meshkini stressed that Iran is demanding the lifting of sanctions and practical guarantees in this regard. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and returned sanctions, and added new ones under different pretexts. Trump did this despite the fact that the JCPOA is being endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Talks to revive the JCPOA started after President Biden said his administration is willing to rejoin the JCPOA. 

Meshkini said, “If the West and the Americans show good faith and seriousness, a win-win agreement is possible.” 

Regarding the remarks of Iran’s foreign minister in the Munich Security Conference on the exchange of prisoners between Iran and the United States, Meshkini said, “We do not go into details, but what is important for us is that the sanctions that must be lifted. Sanctions such as CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) must be dealt with. If not, I do not think we will reach a conclusion in Vienna soon.”

On the U.S. Congress letter to President Biden about the Vienna talks, Meshkini said, “It was not a good time to write the letter to Biden and the text was not correct and I do not think this letter is without coordination. In this regard, the Majlis (parliament) has also written a letter to the president of Iran, calling on the president not to rush into an agreement unless the Americans provide the necessary guarantees to lift the sanctions. We believe Americans need agreement more than we do.”

The letter written by the MPs asks President Ebrahim Raisi not to sign any deal with the Western negotiating partners if they don’t provide guarantees that the JCPOA would not be violated again.

It also wants the U.S. and the European countries that are still signatory to JCPOA not to use the snapback mechanism.

Part of the letter also says the U.S. and the three European countries (Britain, Germany, and France) must give assurances to lift the sanctions, including sanctions related to CAATSA, U-turn, and ISA (Iran Sanctions Act).