The United States has confirmed that it will not lift sanctions on Iran before negotiating the nuclear deal.

The US government has no plans to lift sanctions against Iran at this time, despite the fact that on Thursday Washington officially offered to start nuclear negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

“There are no plans to adopt additional measures before diplomatic negotiations”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on the plane carrying President Joe Biden to Michigan, where he visited a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine plant in Kalamazoo.

On Thursday, the State Department said in a statement that The United States “would accept an invitation from the high representative of the European Union to attend the meeting of the 5 + 1 group and Iran talk about the diplomatic channel on the Iranian nuclear program ”.

In response to a question about why Washington is now seeking dialogue, Psaki replied that the United States shares with its allies the goal of preventing Iran from possessing nuclear weapons: negotiation “is having a conversation on the table, this is the way to go”.

In this regard, he stressed that there were no plans for the moment to open direct negotiations with Tehran and that the usual channels would be used.

“The Europeans invited us (…) It’s simply an invitation to have a diplomatic conversation (…) This is the channel that we have used in the past, in collaboration with our G5 + 1 allies, ”he said.

In 2015, the G5 + 1 group (United States, Russia, China, France, United Kingdom and Germany) and the European Union signed the nuclear deal with Iran, including the government of former President Donald Trump stepped down in 2018.

In addition to the country’s withdrawal from this pact, the Trump administration (2017-2021) reimposed all economic sanctions on Tehran.

Psaki pointed out that Washington does not have “visibility” of what is happening on the ground, due to the Trump administration’s “mistake” in separating the United States from the nuclear deal.

After Washington left in 2018, the pact was weakened and Iran began a year later to gradually reduce its commitments and recently, in flagrant violation of the limits of this pact, began to enrich uranium at a purity of 20% and to produce metallic uranium.

After Thursday’s announcement from the State Department, Iran on Friday insisted on its position to demand that the United States first lift all sanctions before making any concessions.

If the sanctions are not relaxed, Iran will suspend the voluntary implementation of the so-called additional protocol as of next Tuesday, which allows inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit any facility without warning. Iranian civil or military nuclear power.

With information from EFE

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