Sanctions removal talks in final stages: Iran FM
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The talks on the removal of sanctions on Iran are nearing their end, with Tehran voicing hope regarding the issue.
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Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian
Talks on resuscitating the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the JCPOA, have entered their final stages as the Raisi administration makes efforts toward the termination of sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday from Zanzibar in a meeting with President Hussein Ali Mwinyi.
The talks on the removal of sanctions are in the home stretch, and an eventual deal will be achievable if the US acts realistically, the top diplomat added.
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Amir-Abdollahian lauded Zanzibar and Tanzania over their cooperation with Iran as the latter struggles with US sanctions, voicing his country's readiness for closer interaction with the African states.
Amir-Abdollahian stressed that Tehran was ready for the sharing of expertise in the fields of science and technology with Zanzibar, highlighting Iran's great capabilities in medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, as well as that in terms of its agriculture, medical education, and fish farming.
He further stressed that the Islamic Republic was ready to provide scholarship support for the country's university students and also help the country with generating electricity and establishing a solar energy infrastructure.
President Mwinyi, on the other hand, expressed his country's readiness to work with Iran in gas and oil extraction, the inauguration of technology parks, agriculture, education, dam, and road construction.
Amir-Abdollahian began his tour of Africa after Washington responded to an EU proposal aimed at melting the ice in the frozen nuclear talks in Vienna.
The European Union proposed easing sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) in order to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the JCPOA, US media reported earlier in the month.
The proposal, brokered by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in coordination with US officials, is not seeking the suspension of sanctions against the IRGC but may "significantly limit their effectiveness."
Iran announced Wednesday that it had received a response from the US to its proposals on a final EU draft on the revival of the 2015 accord, marking another step taken closer toward an agreement.
A spokesperson for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian Parliament, Abolfazl Amawi, said Sunday that the US is studying Iran's response to a final European Union-brokered proposal on reviving the 2015 international accord, stressing that Tehran didn't receive a response from the US side so far.
President Biden dismissed in April a demand from Iran for him to reverse a decision taken by the Trump administration in 2019 to label the IRGC a "terrorist organization". A group of US senators in May signed a resolution declaring that the US should not agree to any deal that would entail the lifting of sanctions on Iran.
Major powers and Iran are holding talks in Vienna with the aim of reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement and returning the United States to it following Washington's unilateral withdrawal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who accompanied his decision with the imposition of harsh sanctions on Tehran.
In response, Iran gradually withdrew from its commitments under the JCPOA, seeing that the agreement was no longer binding.
