WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Joe Biden’s administration has reinstated a sanctions waiver for Iran, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday, a move that comes amid talks to restore the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal have entered their home stretch.
This exemption, removed in May 2020 by the administration of former US President Donald Trump, allowed European, Russian and Chinese companies to carry out non-proliferation activities on Iranian nuclear sites.
It was necessary to restore this exemption to allow technical discussions at the heart of the talks intended to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, or JCPOA in English) signed in 2015, said the representative of the US State Department.
However, he added, this gesture should not be interpreted as the harbinger of the return of Washington within the framework of this agreement intended to supervise the atomic activities of Thran.
Since Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to withdraw the United States from the Vienna agreement and reinstate sanctions against Iran, Thran has taken many liberties with the agreement, particularly in terms of enriching his uranium. (Report Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; French version Nicolas Delame, told by Jean Terzian)