The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Ali Shamkhani, says the anti-Iran sanctions that were re-imposed by the U.S. should be lifted to reach a “good agreement” in the ongoing Vienna nuclear talks.

Mr Shamkhani tweeted on Monday that “the Iranian negotiators’ agenda for continuing the eighth round of talks has been carefully specified.

“An agreement in which the ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions are not lifted will have an impact on the country’s (Iran) economy, and cannot be the basis of a good agreement.”

The eighth round of Vienna talks, which had been postponed for a few days, is expected to continue in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Tuesday, according to media reports.

Under the nuclear agreement reached in June 2015, Iran agreed to some restrictions on the development of its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of U.S. and Western sanctions.

However, former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and re-imposed sanctions on Iran, after which Iran responded by abandoning some of its nuclear commitments.

Since April 2021, several rounds of negotiations have been undertaken between Iran and the other parties to salvage the 2015 deal, with the U.S. indirectly involved.

(Xinhua/NAN)