Salehi: Negotiating Parties Have Accepted Full Lifting of Sanctions

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, stated on Saturday, May 5, that during the three-day nuclear negotiations in Vienna, the members of the 1+5 group have accepted that all sanctions will be lifted upon reaching a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Salehi, speaking with the first channel of Iran's state television, said, "Recently in Vienna, part of the ambiguities was clarified, and the opposing parties have accepted the full lifting of sanctions." The three-day negotiations between Iran and the 1+5 group took place from Wednesday to Friday in Vienna, Austria, and according to Iranian negotiators, the focus of this round of talks was on how to lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Salehi noted that "the negotiations have now entered into details, and in Lausanne, we reached common concepts regarding the main topics of negotiations, including Natanz, Fordow, and Arak," adding, "We have entered the realm where common concepts can be turned into an agreement." The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization also emphasized that "legal and technical issues are clear, and the discussion of sanctions must also be clarified, especially after the fact sheet published by the Americans." He stressed that during the three-day negotiations in Vienna, "the ambiguities related to the American fact sheet were somewhat resolved." Salehi stated that many negotiation issues cannot be publicly discussed as they may be exploited by some outside parties, including Israel. Iran and the countries of the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia, along with Germany (members of the 1+5), announced on April 2 in Lausanne, Switzerland, that they had defined the "frameworks" for a final agreement. According to the Lausanne understanding, the scope of Iran's nuclear program will be limited so that in return, the sanctions of the European Union and the United States and the United Nations Security Council resolutions against the Islamic Republic will be lifted. Following the Lausanne understanding and the publication of the fact sheet by the U.S. State Department from the Lausanne negotiations, the issue of how to lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic became a point of contention between Iran and the United States. While U.S. officials spoke of a phased lifting of sanctions after the agreement, Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader and the President, emphasized the lifting of all sanctions at the time of the agreement.