Iran Says Washington Agrees To Lift Sanctions And Blacklist, The US: No!

Illustration of Iran's Zolfaghar missile. (Wikimedia Commons/Tasnim News Agency)

JAKARTA - Iran announced the United States (US) has agreed to remove all sanctions on oil and their shipments, while Washington said nothing was agreed until all talks related to the 2015 Nuclear Deal were agreed.

The statement by President Hassan Rouhani's chief of staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, reiterates the statement by Rouhani's camp that Washington is ready to make major concessions to the nuclear talks in Vienna starting next April.

Indirect talks were postponed on Sunday for consultations in the capital city, two days after Iran held a presidential election won by hardline figure Ebrahim Raisi.

"Agreement has been reached to remove all insurance, oil and shipping sanctions imposed by Trump", Vaezi said as quoted by Reuters from Iran's state media, Thursday, June 24.

While acknowledging negotiators sometimes draft texts, the US State Department said there would be no agreement until all issues were resolved.

"During these complex negotiations, negotiators tried to work out a text that captured the key issues, but again, nothing was agreed until everything was agreed", a State Department spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Vaezi also said Washington had agreed to remove several senior Iranian figures from the blacklist.

"Around 1.040 Trump-era sanctions will be lifted under the agreement. It was also agreed to lift some sanctions against individuals and members of the supreme leader's inner circle", he said. Meanwhile, the US State Department did not directly comment on this.

Pushing for an agreement by Western and Iranian negotiators, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said significant hurdles remained.

"We are making progress, but there are still some problems to solve", Maas said at a news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

To note, Iran struck a deal with major powers in 2015 to curb its uranium enrichment program, a possible pathway to nuclear weapons, in exchange for the lifting of US, European Union, and UN sanctions.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump decided to walk out of the deal, followed by tough sanctions against Tehran a year later. Iran responded to this by re-enriching uranium. Before finally, the US Government under Joe Biden wanted to re-talk the 2015 Nuclear Deal.