New anti-Iran bans will complicate resumption of talks aimed at sanctions removal: Russia warns US

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna

A senior Russian diplomat says all participants in the sanctions removal talks in Vienna should avoid any measure that will complicate the "resumption and successful completion" of the negotiations.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna, made the remarks in a post on his Twitter account on Saturday after US Treasury Department’s latest move to impose a fresh round of sanctions on Iranian natural and legal persons amid renewed push to resume talks on the removal of Washington's sanctions against Tehran.

"All participants in the #ViennaTalks should refrain from step which can complicate resumption and successful completion of negotiations on restoration of #JCPOA. It must go without saying," he tweeted.

On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed a fresh round of sanctions on four individuals and two entities allegedly involved in promoting the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programs of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, despite Washington’s claims to be serious in rejoining the nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Friday that the US Treasury Department’s latest sanctions contradict Washington’s claim of seeking to return to the nuclear deal of 2015, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and proves the White House is by no means reliable.

“The imposition of new sanctions exposes the quite contradictory behavior of the White House,” Khatibzadeh said, adding that an administration that speaks about its intention to return to the JCPOA and continues the same policy of former President Donald Trump “is sending the message that is not trustworthy at all.”

The sanctions by the Joe Biden administration came as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri-Kani said on Wednesday that Tehran will rejoin the negotiations aimed at the removal of the United States’ sanctions against Tehran before the end of November.

“We agree to start negotiations before the end of November. Exact date would be announced in the course of the next week,” he tweeted after a meeting with European Union Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Morain in Brussels.

The United States re-introduced the sanctions against Iran in 2018, after leaving the JCPOA, a historic nuclear agreement that had lifted the inhumane economic bans in return for some voluntary restrictions on Iran’s nuclear energy program.