TEHRAN – An Iranian lawmaker has reacted to a U.S. move to restore a nuclear sanctions waiver, saying the move is a “propaganda hoax”. 

Fereydoun Abbasi insisted that Iran's negotiators must remain focused on the removal of the main sanctions in the Vienna talks.

In an exclusive interview with the Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency (ICANA), Abbasi, a nuclear physicist, said that using the phrase “civilian nuclear activity” is a deception because Iran didn’t and doesn’t have nuclear activity of military nature.

He made the remarks in response to the recent sanctions waiver related to Iran's peaceful nuclear activity by the administration of Joe Biden. 

"The sanctions related to the Bushehr reactor are unclear. Why should this reactor have been sanctioned? Iran and Russia had a contract for this reactor. Western countries, particularly Germany, didn’t fulfill their commitments toward the Bushehr reactor in line with the will of the U.S. while there wasn’t any unclear point in the contract between Iran and Russia," MP stated.

He also said that the Arak reactor was a heavy water one that has been transformed in accordance with the Americans’ demand. The lawmaker wondered why the Americans didn’t remove sanctions on this reactor in 2016 while it had been modified according to their demand. 

The MP, who was the chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) from 2011 to 2013, added, "The Tehran research reactor had been built by Americans and after the Islamic revolution of Iran they prevented other countries from delivering fuel to the reactor. Now what has happened that they removed the sanctions on the Tehran reactor?"

The member of the parliament’s Energy Committee said such a waiver is of no value. “Our negotiating team must focus on lifting the main sanctions, all sanctions must be lifted in accordance with what they promised in the JCPOA. Exemption from sanctions on civilian nuclear activity is more of a propaganda hoax,” the lawmaker said.