Iran denies claims of interim deal with US
Iran said that a “temporary agreement” with the United States that would ease sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program was not on the agenda.
According to the news of Iran’s official agency IRNA, in the statement made by Iran’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN), it was stated that the news that Tehran and Washington are close to a temporary nuclear agreement are not true.
In the statement, referring to the Comprehensive Joint Action Plan, known as the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the five UN Security Council member countries and Germany in 2015, and then the United States withdrew unilaterally in 2018, the interim agreement to replace the nuclear agreement is on the agenda. not” was stated.
Iran’s semi-official agency ISNA announced on June 6 that Tehran had agreed to release its frozen assets of $10 billion in Iraq and $7 billion in South Korea due to the US unilateral banking sanctions.
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper also wrote on June 7 that the negotiations between Iran and the United States were progressing faster than expected and that the parties were likely to reach an agreement within a few weeks.
London-based Middle East Eye news site, on June 8, citing two unnamed sources, claimed that Iran and the United States were approaching a “temporary agreement” that would allow oil sales in exchange for restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program.
In the news, it was claimed that Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN Said Iravani and the White House’s Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley met several times in the United States and significant progress was made in the talks.
Iran nuclear deal and sanctions process
An agreement was signed in 2015 between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the USA, Russia, China, the UK and France, and Germany (5+1), in which Tehran’s nuclear activities were regulated and controlled in return for the lifting of sanctions.
On May 8, 2018, during the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and reimposed sanctions on this country.
Iran, in turn, began to suspend its activities in the agreement on May 8, 2019. Although Iran allowed to enrich uranium at the rate of 3.67 percent in the agreement, it started to enrich uranium with 60 percent purity in this process.
The nuclear talks, which began in Vienna in April 2021 after Trump and focused on reviving the nuclear deal with Iran and rejoining the US in the deal, were suspended in early September 2022 due to a series of disagreements between Washington and Tehran.
While Iranian officials frequently stated that the exchange of messages with the USA regarding the nuclear agreement was not interrupted, the US administration explained that nuclear negotiations with Iran were not on the agenda.
Iran cannot access its assets due to US unilateral sanctions
Iran cannot access South Korea’s 7 billion dollar foreign exchange obtained from oil exports and kept in banks in this country due to the unilateral banking sanctions of the United States.
The US’s NBC News television reported on February 15, citing American officials, that Tehran and Washington were holding indirect talks through Qatar and the UK for the exchange of detainees in the two countries and the release of Iran’s billions of dollars held in South Korea. .
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Emir Abdullahiyan also said in a statement on March 12, “We reached an agreement in the past days and if everything goes well on the American side, I think we will witness a prisoner exchange in the short term.”
Known for being close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Nournews announced in April that Tehran and Washington had reached an agreement on how to release Iran’s frozen assets, and that technical negotiations were ongoing between experts from both sides.
