WASHINGTON, Oct 4: The US has ruled out lifting or easing of any of its sanctions against Iran asserting that only “concrete and verifiable steps” by the country on its nuclear programme can offer it a relief.
“We’ve been clear that only concrete and verifiable steps can offer a path to sanctions relief. We are going to be clear that we will continue to vigorously implement and enforce the sanctions that are in place as we explore this negotiated resolution,” State Department spokesperson, Marie Harf.
Noting that Iran is increasingly feeling the pinch of Iranian sanctions, Harf said people of Iran do need economic relief.
“The Iranian people need economic relief. But, we will not take steps to move away from these sanctions until we see the Iranian Government follow up the words we’ve seen with concrete actions,” she said, yesterday.
The new Iranian regime can do it as soon as possible. The US is going to be talking about it during the P-5+1 meeting in Geneva later this month.
Iran, she said, could take a lot of steps to show that they’re willing to take credible steps. These include opening up every facility to IAEA inspectors.
“We’re not going to outline every step, but I think the Secretary was making the point that the Iranians have and they know what these concrete steps are that they could take,” she said.
Harf said, Iran has come to the negotiations table because of the tough economic sanctions.
“One of the main reasons, if not the main reason, we’re at the negotiating table today is because of these crippling sanctions we’ve put in place on Iran,” she said.
The new Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, she said was elected with a mandate to improve the economic lives of Iranians, “So we are waiting for him to live up to what he said in his campaign, and we do believe that there have been some positive signs coming out of the Iranian Government,” she said.
“But we’re not naive that there are challenges that remain, and we will keep working with our partners in the P-5+1, and, indeed, meeting with the Iranians again in Geneva to talk about the path forward,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration yesterday urged lawmakers not to go ahead with imposing new sanctions against Iran at least till the mid of this month when the P-5+1 countries hold talks with the Iranian leaders on its nuclear programme.
“In terms of legislation that is currently being discussed here on the (Capitol) Hill, we do believe it would be helpful for you all to at least allow this meeting to happen on the 15th and 16th of October before moving forward to consider those new sanctions,” the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing. (PTI)
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