US won’t lift sanctions to bring Iran back to nuclear deal talks: Biden

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – US President Joe Biden has said Washington will not lift sanctions on Iran to get the Islamic Republic to negotiate over its nuclear commitments, in an interview aired just hours after Iran released its “final stance” on the issue.

When asked in an interview with CBS if he would lift sanctions to bring Iran back to the negotiating table, he answered with a simple “no.”

Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump enacted a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Tehran after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal in 2018, reimposing harsh sanctions on Iran.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave Tehran’s “final stance” on the 2015 nuclear deal on Sunday, saying that the Islamic Republic would return to its commitments under the agreement only if the US “completely” lifts crippling sanctions on the country.

“If they want Iran to return to its commitments… America must completely lift sanctions, and not just in words or on paper,” the leader said in a televised speech. 

The United Nations’ top court has said it can hear Iran’s case for overturning the sanctions reimposed by Trump, which claims it breaches a 1955 agreement between the two countries, AFP reported on Thursday.

US officials announced sanctions weekly in the last months of the Trump administration. Biden has previously signaled willingness to return the US to the nuclear deal if Iran, which has taken multiple steps back from its commitments under the agreement, obeys the constraints of the deal. 

Tehran announced in January it had begun enriching uranium up to 20 percent, the latest in a series of violations of the deal, which aims to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.