Iran has opened up the possibility of reaching an agreement on its nuclear program with the United States if Washington lifts sanctions it has imposed on the Iranian regime.
In an interview with the BBC given in Tehran on February 15, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said: "We are ready to talk about this and other issues related to our [nuclear] program on the condition that they are ready to start talking about sanctions."
"These sanctions should also be on the negotiating table," he said, adding that the ball is now "on the American side to prove that they want a deal."
Takht-Ravanchi did not specify whether he was referring to some or all of the sanctions imposed by the US, which target banks and oil exports, as well as other sectors. These measures have been imposed in recent years.
The Geneva talks
These statements come ahead of the new round of US-Iran talks to be held in Geneva on February 17.
The US delegation will include envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and representatives from Oman will act as mediators. Oman hosted indirect talks between Tehran and Washington that took place earlier in February.
According to the BBC, Takht-Ravanchi cited Iran's offer to dilute its enriched uranium to 60 percent as a signal of willingness to compromise and said that zero-level enrichment - something the US seeks - is "no longer on the negotiating table."
Western countries have long suspected Iran of seeking to create a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists its program is for civilian purposes only.
World powers reached a nuclear deal with Tehran in 2015, aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. At the time, the West eased economic sanctions on Tehran, but the Islamic Republic has begun to backtrack on its commitments since Donald Trump, during his first term as US president, withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
Second US aircraft carrier heads for Arabian Sea
Donald Trump has described initial talks between the US and Iran as “positive”, but over the weekend said regime change is “the best thing that could happen” in Iran. He also confirmed that a second US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will soon join a “massive” US fleet in the Arabian Sea.
The US president has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran if a deal is not reached to limit its nuclear program. The United States and Israel targeted Iran's nuclear and military facilities during a 12-day bombing campaign in June last year.
In a panel discussion at the Muni Security Conference on February 13, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that Iran's nuclear landscape has fundamentally changed after the US attacks, adding that "the physical infrastructure of Iran's nuclear program has been extensively damaged and that future monitoring should focus not only on what remains, but also on how Tehran's nuclear capabilities might develop in the future."
IAEA inspectors have returned to Iran, but they still do not have access to the facilities that were hit during the bombings.
The upcoming talks also come weeks after a violent crackdown on anti-government protests across Iran. Iranian security forces have killed thousands of protesters and arrested more than 53.000 people, according to human rights groups.
