In this July 10, 2019 photo, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, attends a meeting with the diplomatic advisor to the French president in the Iranian capital Tehran. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Monday the anti-Iran sanctions re-imposed by former United States administration should be lifted in order to reach a "good agreement" in the ongoing Vienna nuclear talks.
"The Iranian negotiators' agenda for continuing the eighth round of talks has been carefully specified," Shamkhani tweeted.
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An agreement in which the 'maximum pressure' sanctions are not lifted will have an impact on the country's (Iran) economy, and cannot be the basis of a good agreement.
Ali Shamkhani, Secretary, Supreme National Security Council, Iran
"An agreement in which the 'maximum pressure' sanctions are not lifted will have an impact on the country's (Iran) economy, and cannot be the basis of a good agreement," he wrote.
The eighth round of Vienna talks, which had been postponed for a few days, was expected to continue in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Under the nuclear agreement reached in June 2015, Iran agreed to some restrictions on the development of its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of US and Western sanctions.
However, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, after which Iran responded by abandoning some of its nuclear commitments.
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Since April 2021, several rounds of negotiations have been undertaken between Iran and the other parties to salvage the 2015 deal, with the US indirectly involved.