“US refusal to provide guarantees main obstacle to Vienna talks”

Mohammad Marandi told the Entekhab news website that no agreement would be achieved on reviving the Iran deal even if the US agreed to lift the sanctions on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) “right now.”

“This is because there are still a few outstanding issues remaining [to be resolved], the most important of which is the US administration’s guarantees for adherence to its potential commitments” under a renewed agreement, he said.

Marandi said Iran accepted the current White House team’s assertion that it could not guarantee its successor’s commitment to the nuclear deal, but the Joe Biden administration was not even ready to provide “minimum guarantees” that it would uphold its own end of the bargain until the end of its own term.

Without such guarantees no foreign company will risk investing in Iran and such a situation will adversely affect the country’s economic interests, he added.

He said there was no doubt that Iran’s most central goal in restoring the nuclear deal was a “removal of sanctions and economic gains,” but the Americans seek to divert public attention from the core issues by repeatedly bringing up issues such as the IRGC bans in an attempt to put the blame on Iran for a halt in the Vienna talks.

Marandi blamed deepening divisions between the US administration and Congress as the main reason behind Washington’s foot-dragging on taking a decision vis-à-vis the Iran deal.