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Iran foreign minister says they will reverse nuclear actions when US lifts sanctions

Iran has set February 23 as the deadline for the US to lift the sanctions

Iran foreign minister makes dramatic visit to G7 summit [File] Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew into Biarritz in southern France for the G7 summit on Sunday | AP

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Friday, that Iran will reverse nuclear actions when the US lifts its sanctions. The statement comes after US President Joe Biden announced that the US is ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Former president Donald Trump, in 2018, withdrew from the nuclear deal that Iran and five other nations including Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany had signed in 2015. Trump then imposed trade sanctions on Iran. Relations between the two nations have been tense since then. Zarif on Twitter said when sanctions are lifted, “we will then immediately reverse all remedial measures. Simple.”

Iran started breaching the deal in 2019, about a year after the US exited the deal. On January 4 2021, Iran said it has begun enriching its uranium reserves up to 20 per cent—  the biggest breach yet, of the nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday had said that the country would reverse its nuclear actions if the United States lifts all the sanctions it imposed. 

In a joint statement, the other four nations that have signed the nuclear deal have said that the US would lift the sanctions if Iran comes back into strict compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, Reuters reported. Iran has set February 23 as the deadline for the US to lift the sanctions. Tehran added that if the doesn't comply, it will ban short-notice inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, another breach in the JCPOA. 

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