U.S. keeps sanctioning Iran as "pressure leverage": Iranian lawmaker

TEHRAN, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- While the ongoing negotiations in Vienna are aimed at the removal of anti-Iran sanctions, the United States keeps sanctioning as leverage to pressure the Islamic republic, an Iranian spokesperson told official IRNA news agency on Sunday.

"Although we emphasize that the sanctions are oppressive and against the rights of our people and should be removed, and we are negotiating in Vienna to remove these sanctions, the other side (U.S.) is trying to use sanctions and the increase in the number of sanctioned companies as a pressure leverage and influence in the negotiation process," said Abolfazl Amoui, spokesperson of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament.

His remarks were a reference to Iran's informal negotiations with the European Union over the past weeks to thaw the ice in the Vienna process, while the United States imposed a series of new sanctions against entities related to Iran's petrochemical exports recently.

Emphasizing that sanctions against Iran should not go unanswered, Amoui noted that "the decision of the Islamic republic is a logical decision which shows that it has the capability to increase the capacity of uranium enrichment."

Therefore, the opposite party must have accurate calculations in applying pressure against Iran, and that action against Iran does not go without reaction, the Iranian lawmaker stressed.

Regarding the recent injection of gas into the advanced centrifuges in Iran, he said that Iran has acquired "good capabilities in the nuclear industry and centrifuge production, including the production of advanced generation or IR6 centrifuges, which can accelerate the process of enriched uranium."

The new round of talks to revive the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), began in Vienna on Thursday after a five-month hiatus.

Iran signed the nuclear deal with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.