Iranian President Hassan Rouhani affirmed today, Wednesday, his country's adherence to the text of the nuclear agreement document, stressing that it will not accept any increase or decrease in it, at a time when Washington affirmed that its goal is to subject Tehran's nuclear program to the most stringent verification regimes.
Rouhani said - in statements carried by the official IRNA agency - that Iran does not want anything additional, but it has demands that it will present later. “The country has incurred hundreds of billions of dollars in damages over the past four years, but what is required now is to fully implement the agreement.”
Rouhani added that the first step to implementing the agreement is to lift all sanctions by Washington, explaining that his country has seen seriousness from the American side in some files, but he had contradictions in other files.
Turning to the recent Vienna talks to revive the nuclear deal, Rouhani said, "Everyone knows that the way to solve the problem of Iran's nuclear program is to fully implement the agreement."
Iran calls for the full implementation of the nuclear agreement (Al-Jazeera)
No unilateral concessions
For his part, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that the White House envoy to Iran is discussing a plan that includes specific steps to return to the nuclear agreement.
Price stressed that the United States will not make unilateral initiatives or concessions to Iran, and said that Washington's goal is to subject Tehran's nuclear program to the most stringent verification regimes.
He added that the United States will not lift sanctions on Iran unless it is assured that it will fully comply with its obligations under the nuclear deal and limit its nuclear program, thus reducing the level and scope of enrichment, "otherwise the United States will not make any concessions," as he put it.
"Progress has been made in the past two weeks. But there is much work left to do," the European Union’s political director, Enrique Mora, who is coordinating the indirect talks between Tehran and Washington, wrote on his Twitter account.
As for the Russian representative to the international organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Elyanov, he said that there is no realistic alternative to reviving the nuclear agreement.
He added in a tweet on Twitter that the maximum sanctions policy had failed, and had only led to Iran's development of its nuclear program, noting that reviving the nuclear deal would ensure the peaceful nature of the program.
On the other hand, the Saudi Cabinet renewed its call on Iran to engage in the ongoing negotiations and avoid escalation in the region.
In a statement issued early Wednesday morning, the Saudi Cabinet called for the need for the international community to reach an agreement with Iran with stronger and longer-term determinants, and for the implementation of monitoring and control measures to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Israeli talks
In this regard, 3 Israeli security officials will leave for Washington next week to hold separate meetings with American officials on the Iranian file.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said today that the Army Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, the head of the Mossad intelligence service, Yossi Cohen, and the head of the National Security Authority, Meir Ben Shabat, will leave for Washington early next week.
The three officials will hold - according to the authority - talks with high-ranking figures in the US administration, against the backdrop of the progress made in the Vienna negotiations on returning the United States to the nuclear deal.
Israeli officials had called for the continuation of sanctions on Iran and for not returning to the international agreement signed in 2015.
On April 6, the Vienna talks began to revive the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 between Iran and the major powers, after the withdrawal of the administration of former US President Donald Trump from it in 2018.
The parties participating in the Vienna talks related to the Iran nuclear agreement announced the postponement of the meetings for a week to allow delegations to coordinate with their capitals, and the parties to the nuclear agreement will reconvene early next week.