Iran will ”immediately reverse” actions in respect of its nuclear programme when US sanctions are lifted, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Friday, reiterating Tehran’s position on Washington’s offer to revive talks. The Joe Biden administration said on Thursday it was ready to revive a 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers that former president Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 before reimposing sanctions on Iran.

When sanctions are lifted, ”we will then immediately reverse all remedial measures. Simple,” Zarif said on Twitter.

On Thursday, Zarif had tweeted that Iran’s ”remedial measures” were in response to violations of the accord by the US, Britain, France and Germany. Other signatories to the 2015 deal were China and Russia.

Breaches of the deal by Iran began in 2019, about a year after Trump withdrew from it.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that the Biden administration would return to the accord if Tehran came into full compliance with it.

Tehran has set a Feb. 23 deadline for Washington to begin reversing sanctions, otherwise, it says, it will take its biggest step yet to breach the deal – banning short-notice inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Britain, France, Germany, and the United States called on Iran to refrain from that step and repeated their concerns over recent actions by Tehran to produce uranium enriched up to 20 percent and uranium metal.

First Published:Feb 19, 2021 1:43 PM IST