Washington: The US State Department is waiving sanctions on Iran’s civilian nuclear program in a technical step necessary to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, a senior official said.
The resumption of the waiver, ended by the Donald Trump administration in 2020, “would be essential to ensuring Iran’s swift compliance” if a new deal on controlling Tehran’s nuclear program can be reached in talks in Vienna, the State Department official said.
The waiver allows other countries and companies to participate in Iran’s civilian nuclear program without triggering US sanctions on them, in the name of promoting safety and non-proliferation.
The civilian program includes Iran’s increasing stockpiles of enriched uranium.
“Absent this sanctions waiver, detailed technical discussions with third parties regarding disposition of stockpiles and other activities of nonproliferation value cannot take place,” the official said, insisting on anonymity.
The step came as talks to restore the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which then president Trump unilaterally withdrew from in 2018, were at an advanced stage.
Joe Biden moved quickly to return to the agreement after he became president a year ago, but Iran in the meantime has moved increasingly closer to producing enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
The Vienna talks, which include Iran, the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, are at a key stage where the parties have to make “critical political decisions,” a senior US official said last week.
“The technical discussions facilitated by the waiver are necessary in the final weeks of JCPOA talks,” the State Department official said Friday. AFP
