United States Restores Sanctions Waiver To Iran

President Joe Biden's administration has restored sanctions waiver to Iran, a senior State Department official said.

The waiver, which was rescinded by the Trump administration in May 2020, had allowed Russian, Chinese and European companies to carry out non-proliferation work at Iranian nuclear sites.

According to Aljazeera, the State Department official said in a statement that; “The waiver was needed to allow for technical discussions that were key to the negotiations about returning to the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“The technical discussions facilitated by the waiver are necessary in the final weeks of JCPOA talks.”

“Even if a final deal is not reached, the waiver is important to holding discussions on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons – of interest to the entire world.”

Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), also said; “I don’t want to say it’s a signal that negotiations are near the end, but I think it’s a sign that there’s progress, that the U.S. wants to show that it’s making a good faith effort to restore the deal and overcome some of Iran’s hesitations.”

The United States and Iran have been negotiating in Vienna to revive the deal, which saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting international sanctions against its economy.