China to US: Lift Iran Sanctions to Return to JCPOA

By Staff- Agencies

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi confirmed that the United States should first lift all the sanctions it has imposed on Iran in order to return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

This comes as negotiations continue in the Austrian capital to revive the agreement, which was abandoned by the US three years after its conclusion.

“To return to the deal, lifting sanctions on Iran first is the natural thing to do,” Wang said in an address to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva on Friday, referring to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], signed between Iran and major world powers.

He stressed the need to resolve non-proliferation issues through negotiations and lambasted the US unilateral bullying acts which are the “root cause” of issues pertaining to the Iranian nuclear issue.

“As the negotiations for the United States and Iran to resume compliance with the agreement are now in the final sprint, parties concerned need to make a political decision as quickly as possible and redouble diplomatic efforts to bring the JCPOA back on track,” the top Chinese diplomat, whose country is a party to the deal, stated.

He once again emphasized that the JCPOA has been endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and is “an important outcome of multilateral diplomacy and a key pillar of the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and peace and stability in the Middle East.”