The president of the United States, donald trumpstated this Thursday that Iran requested the lifting of the harsh US sanctions imposed against Tehran and expressed its willingness to maintain a dialogue on the matter.
“Frankly, Iran has been asking if the sanctions could be lifted. Iran has very strong US sanctions, and that makes it really difficultTrump said during a dinner with Central Asian leaders.
“I’m open to hearing it, and we’ll see what happens, but I’d be open to that.“added the Republican president.
The statements occurred in a context of regional tension following the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran that occurred in mid-June, which included US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities.
That conflict caused the suspension of nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which had been resumed in April with the aim of reaching a new agreement that would limit Iranian atomic activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Western countries, including the United States, have for years accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists that its atomic program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.
Iran remains under severe international sanctionsespecially since 2018, when Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement reached three years earlier and reestablished punitive measures that seriously affected its economy.
During the dinner, Trump stated that Iran “He had been the bully of the Middle East, but he no longer has the possibility of possessing nuclear weaponsAccording to the president, the US strikes destroyed the Iranian nuclear program, although the true extent of the damage remains unconfirmed.
In September, the United Nations reinstated sanctions against Tehran through the mechanism known as snapbackafter United Kingdom, France and Germany will activate the process. These sanctions prohibit transactions related to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic missile activities.
Omanwhich in the past hosted several rounds of talks between Iranian and American officials, urged both parties to resume dialogue. The negotiations sought a new understanding that would impose verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the suspension of economic sanctions.
The possibility of restarting talks will depend, according to analysts and diplomats, on whether Washington and Tehran manage to reestablish channels of direct communication, interrupted since the outbreak of the conflict with Israel.
Trump, who returned to the White House in January, has reiterated that his policy toward Iran is based on “maximum pressure combined with willingness to dialogueHowever, he did not specify whether there is currently a formal channel of contact between both governments or what conditions he would evaluate to lift the sanctions.
With the regional situation still unstable and the Iranian nuclear program under international surveillance, the US president’s statements mark a new turn in the relationship between Washington and Tehran, after years of diplomatic confrontations, economic sanctions and indirect military clashes in the Middle East.
(With information from AFP)
