Iran’s Parliament speaker said Tehran does not care whether or not the next US administration will rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal, but the critical issue is the practical lifting of sanctions under the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Speaking at a Sunday session of the Parliament, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said the West must realize that it ought to recognize the Iranian nation’s rights and pay a proportional price for exerting pressure on the people of Iran, according to Tasnim News Agency.
“The JCPOA is not a holy agreement for us, but the Islamic Republic has agreed on it with certain conditions for the removal of the sanctions. Thus, the US’ return to JCPOA doesn’t matter to us; we care only about the practical and tangible lifting of the sanctions,” he added.
Iran’s main strategy in dealing with enemies is to neutralize the sanctions, which is preliminary to the removal of the sanctions, he added, stressing the need to generate strength like what the late Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was doing.
Fakhrizadeh, the head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, was targeted in a multi-pronged terrorist attack in Absard town of Tehran Province’s Damavand County on November 27.
Law on lifting of sanctions
The speaker described the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s support for a parliamentary law on the lifting of sanctions as a reminder that the era of imposing sanctions on Iran without paying a price has ended.
The United States, under President Donald Trump, abandoned the nuclear deal between Iran and others – which has been hailed by much of the world as a pillar of regional and international security – in May, 2018 and restored the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The unilateral measure prompted Iran to announce a set of nuclear countermeasures as it has been allowed under the deal.
Last Monday, Iran announced it had resumed the process of enriching uranium to 20 percent purity at its Fordo nuclear facility.
The measure was taken under a law, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, which Parliament had approved late last year, giving the next US administration until February 21 to remove the sanctions.
The law also allowed the Islamic Republic to expel the United Nations nuclear watchdog inspectors if Washington failed to resume its commitments under the JCPOA.
From Iran’s point of view, the sanctions are deemed to be lifted only when Tehran sells oil freely, the central bank receives revenues through official mechanisms, and Iranian business people work freely with the world, Qalibaf stressed, adding that in that case Iran will resume honoring its JCPOA commitments.
Overcoming sanctions
In remarks made in November 2020, Ayatollah Khamenei called on Iranian officials to concentrate efforts on thwarting and overcoming the sanctions instead of seeking their removal, pointing to the unsuccessful outcome of years of negotiations for lifting the sanctions.
The Leader slammed the sanctions as a “bitter reality” and a “crime” that the US and its European allies have committed against the Iranian nation, noting, “Such a crime has been committed against the Iranian nation for years, but it has intensified over the past three years.”
The two remedies for dealing with the sanctions are “nullifying and overcoming the sanctions” and their “removal,” Ayatollah Khamenei noted, adding, “We once tried the path of removal of the sanctions and negotiated for several years, but it did not yield results.”
Describing efforts to overcome the sanctions and countering them by becoming self-sufficient as being the proper option, the Leader said, “This path might have difficulties and problems at the beginning, but it will have a successful outcome in the long run.”