Iran’s First Vice President, Mohammad Reza Aref, said the country is working to negotiate the removal of “unfair and inhumane sanctions.” Speaking on Monday at the Supreme Council on Foreign Relations, Aref shared the government’s focus under President Masoud Pezeshkian, while criticizing groups within Iran that oppose talks with Western nations to ease these restrictions.
He explained that the sanctions are hurting ordinary people, not just the government. “If the goal was to target the government, essential items like medicine and goods wouldn’t be affected,” he said, highlighting how these sanctions impact daily life.
Iran’s push for talks comes as efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, Iran and western powers to engage in second round of reviving nuclear talks on 13th January 2025. These discussions are happening before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office again later this month. In 2018, Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reintroduced tough sanctions, ending the deal that had lifted sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.