Guaranteed $15b in Oil Proceeds Key to Tehran’s Full JCPOA Compliance

EghtesadOnline: A senior nuclear negotiator said Tehran would return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, only if it received $15 billion in oil revenues over four months.

News ID: ۷۴۸۳۸۳

07 September 2019

"Otherwise, the process of reducing commitments will continue," Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters in Slovenia, following expert-level talks in Paris between Iranian and French delegations on Monday.

Iran began in May to reduce its compliance with the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in response to the United States' withdrawal and reimposition of sanctions and other parties' failure to safeguard its economic interests under the agreement.

It has demanded assurance for the sale of its oil, the country's main source of income, and "access to its revenues as completely ready for use and without any restriction", Financial Tribune quoted Araqchi as saying.

France is leading efforts to satisfy Iran's expectations and has prepared a mechanism to compensate for the economic losses caused by US sanctions.

The two sides have had a series of talks at presidential, ministerial and expert levels over the past months on the initiative, including the Monday consultations.

Tehran has stressed during the talks that "Europe has to either buy oil from Iran or provide Iran with the equivalent of selling oil as a credit line, which is guaranteed by Iran's oil revenues and means a presale of oil in some sense," Araqchi said.

He explained that the amount of credit line has to be $15 billion for four months, which is up to the end of this year.

"In case an agreement is reached, Iran would either sell 100% of its oil over the next four months, or would receive [equivalent revenues] as a credit line and pre-sell [its oil]," he said.

Future Talks

Araqchi also said that after receiving the $15 billion, Iran would be ready to negotiate with the five remaining parties to JCPOA, but "there are serious disagreements on the agenda for the talks".

According to the diplomat, discussions to determine the agenda of the talks are ongoing and have not been finalized.

He, however, made it clear that Iran would not negotiate "its redlines", including the contents of the nuclear deal.

"No renegotiation will be conducted on JCPOA, but an acceptable implementation of the deal could be a topic of discussion, as the other side has seriously fallen short of expectations," he said.

Araqchi noted that security of global waterways could also be discussed in any future talks.

"On condition of [receiving assurances on] security and freedom for its ships in all waterways, Iran is ready to enter into negotiations on the security and freedom of shipping in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz," he said.

Asked about a potential meeting between Iranian and American authorities, he said "such a meeting is by no means on the agenda".

"Not only is there no possibility of a bilateral meeting, but there is also no ground for the US presence in Iran's negotiations with the remaining parties to JCPOA unless it returns to the deal and lifts all nuclear sanctions again," he said.