DUBAI, May 23. /TASS/. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran may allow stricter monitoring at its nuclear facilities on the condition that sanctions are lifted.
"We will not give up our rights, but we can take measures to [enhance] transparency on the condition that sanctions are lifted," he told SNN television.
At the same time, Araghchi said it was "too early to speak about the results of the talks" with the United States, because the issue of Tehran’s uranium enrichment remains "unsolved." In his words, the negotiations will continue "until the United States gives its consent."
Otherwise, if the United States keeps insisting on total stop of uranium enrichment, "no agreement will be reached."
Araghchi went on to say that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program cannot be revived and should be left behind.
"The JCPOA is not dead yet, but it cannot be revived. It should be left behind," he told SNN television.
He also said that some of JCPOA’s provisions on sanctions need to be reviewed.
The fifth round of negotiations between Iran and the United States will take place in Rome on May 23.
Iranian nuclear deal
The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal, with Iran in 2015, putting an end to a long-running standoff about Iran’s alleged development of nuclear weapons. However, during his first presidential term, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and re-imposed all the anti-Iranian sanctions after they began to be lifted under the deal.
In response, Iran announced in 2020 that it would reduce its commitments under the JCPOA and limit access for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors. Negotiations to restore the nuclear deal took place in Vienna from 2021 to 2022 but yielded no results. Joe Biden, who was US President between Trump’s two terms, repeatedly declared his country’s readiness to get back to the deal, but once in the White House again in 2025, Trump signed an executive order to resume a policy of maximum pressure on Iran and warned about the potential use of military force should Tehran reject a new deal with Washington.