U.S. seeks to "erode" nuke negotiations by imposing new sanctions: Iranian lawmaker

TEHRAN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States seeks to erode the negotiations that aim to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by imposing new sanctions against Iran, an Iranian senior lawmaker said on Sunday.

"The recent U.S. sanctions against several individuals and companies that cooperate with Iran, while negotiations over JCPOA are underway, showed that they are not looking for cooperation but to exert pressures," Abbas Moqtadaei, vice chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament, told official IRNA news agency.

This further showed the "unreliability" of the United States and proved that they seek to achieve their goals by putting more pressure on the Iranian nation, he was quoted as saying.

The U.S. President Biden's administration on Wednesday announced a new round of sanctions against the "international network of individuals and entities" involved in trade with Iran's petroleum and petrochemical products. The U.S. fresh move came amid diplomatic efforts to rescue the JCPOA.

Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. However, former U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal began in April 2021 in Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.

After a three-month pause, the talks resumed recently in the Qatari capital Doha, but it failed to result in any agreement to settle the remaining differences.