File photo of Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh. /Getty
The full removal of U.S. sanctions against Iran will be on the agenda of a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Vienna, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday.
Parties to the Iran nuclear deal have agreed to convene in Austria on Tuesday to discuss ways to bring the deal back to life.
"The path is clear. All U.S. sanctions must be removed at once," Khatibzadeh said during his press conference.
After Iran verifies U.S. sanction removal measures, it will be ready to reverse its measures pertaining to the suspension of its commitments taken because of the opposite sides' violation of the deal, he added.
The spokesman ruled out any plan for the step-by-step removal of anti-Iran sanctions by the United States.
Besides, the discussions in the Vienna meeting would be around the fulfillment of obligations by the other parties to the deal to safeguard Iran's agreement interests, Khatibzadeh added.
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This photo released on November 5, 2019 by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran shows centrifuge machines in Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran. /AP
The Iran nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 between Iran and the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, Germany and the European Union.
The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the agreement and re-imposed sanctions against Iran in May 2018. One year later, Iran gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments.
The two countries are in a standoff over reviving the deal. The Joe Biden administration has said that if Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA, Washington would do the same. Iran insists its full compliance will only take place once U.S. sanctions are removed.
U.S. and Iranian officials are scheduled to begin indirect talks in Vienna on Tuesday – with European officials expected to act as intermediaries – to try to revive the 2015 pact.
Washington said it expects the talks to be "difficult" and does not foresee any early breakthrough.
"We don't underestimate the scale of the challenges ahead," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday.
"These are early days. We don't anticipate an early or immediate breakthrough as these discussions, we fully expect, will be difficult," he told reporters.
"Our goal at these talks ... is to set the stage for that mutual return to compliance," Price said.
U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, will lead the U.S. delegation in Vienna, where the pact was originally reached.
(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)