The United States should immediately and unconditionally return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a Chinese diplomat said Thursday. 

The burning issue is that the U.S. should come up with a concrete plan to lift sanctions, and based on this, Iran should comprehensively resume the implementation of the JCPOA, Wang Qun, Chinese envoy to the United Nations and other international organizations in Vienna, said at a meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA in the Austrian capital. 

He said Washington should lift all sanctions relating to the Iran nuclear issue – be it sanctions on Iran or long-arm jurisdiction measures on third-party entities and individuals. 
  
Lifting the sanctions is not only the key to the success of the negotiations, but also what should be done to resume JCPOA implementation and safeguard the deal, the envoy said. 

Wang called on all parties to the deal to remove all disturbances and speed up the negotiation process to hash out an arrangement for the U.S. and Iran to resume compliance with it.

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The Joint Commission of the JCPOA resumed its talks on Thursday in Vienna, after a blackout struck the Natanz enrichment facility in central Iran on Sunday morning. Iranian authorities have accused Israel of "sabotage." 
  
Wang said that China was aware of the incident at the Natanz facility, and "we strongly condemn it and firmly oppose it." 

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The meeting also comes after Iran's announcement on Tuesday that it will enrich uranium at 60 percent purity and add 1,000 advanced centrifuges to its enrichment devices in Natanz in response to the attack.

Wang said China has noticed that relevant countries on Wednesday issued a joint statement expressing concerns over Iran's announcement. "It is hoped that all parties will exercise restraint and not overreact," he said. 

The envoy stressed that the above-mentioned developments have made China even more convinced that at the key juncture of the current Iranian nuclear situation, all parties concerned should strive to maintain the good momentum of the negotiations since last week.

Thursday's talks were chaired by Enrique Mora, the deputy secretary general and political director of the European External Action Service. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, along with corresponding officials from Russia, Britain, France, Germany and China, attended the meeting. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday during a cabinet meeting that Iran had no problem negotiating a return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, but would do so "according to its own logic."  

He said the U.S. must implement the very same conditions that were agreed in July 2015, and as soon as Iran verifies those conditions have been met, it would "immediately fulfill all (its) obligations." 

Washington wants Iran to reverse the breaches of the deal that it made in retaliation for tough sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump after he pulled the U.S. out of the deal in 2018. 

(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)

(Cover: A meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is held in Vienna, Austria, April 15, 2021. /Xinhua)