President Joe Biden has said the United States will not lift sanctions on Iran before the country returns to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, the latest impasse in an ongoing standoff between the two nations.
Mr. Biden made his comments in a CBS News interview. A clip of the interview was released Sunday morning.
Asked by CBS News whether the U.S. will lift sanctions to convince Iran to participate in negotiations, Mr. Biden said, “No.” When CBS asked whether Iran must stop enriching uranium first, Mr. Biden nodded.
The Biden administration has previously said Iran must come into compliance with the 2015 agreement before sanctions will be lifted. “President Biden supports diplomacy to deal with the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, but he certainly isn’t going to offer sanctions relief just to get Iran back to the table, which is what the question suggested,” a White House official said on Sunday.
2015 deal sought to limit Iran’s nuclear programme, with sanctions eased in return.
Former US President Donald Trump, however, withdrew the US from the deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, leading Iran to roll back on a number of its commitments.
Iran, which says its nuclear programme is peaceful, has been increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be used to make reactor fuel, but also nuclear bombs.
On January 4, Iran announced it has stepped up its uranium enrichment process to 20 percent purity, far above the 3.67 percent level permitted by the deal, but far below the amount required for an atomic bomb.
And it may restrict by February 21 nuclear inspections if US sanctions are not lifted or other key parties to the deal do not help Tehran bypass them, according to a law passed by the parliament in December.
According to Khamenei, Iran has “a right to set conditions for the continuation” of the deal as it has upheld its end, unlike the US and the three European members of the deal — Britain, France and Germany — who have “violated all their commitments”. “No one in the Islamic republic cares for the nonsense claimed by those not entitled to anything,” he said.
