U.S. guarantees necessary to revive nuclear deal: Iranian lawmaker

TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Guarantees from the United States to secure Iran's interests is the requirement to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, a senior Iranian lawmaker said on Friday.

Pointing to recently-resumed negotiations between Iran and the world powers, with Washington indirectly involved, Behrooz Mohebbi Najmabadi said that the strategy of the United States in the negotiations has always been "blackmailing" in order to get maximum points in negotiations, according to official IRNA news agency.

However, Iran will not back down in its economic and national interests in the negotiations and will not give up on its rightful demands, said Najmabadi, a member of the Planning and Budget Commission of the Iranian parliament.

He argued that "Iran is not in any position of weakness and has not committed any deviation in its nuclear program, and in the meantime, its actions are completely legal and within the framework of the Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The United States and the West should respect Iran as an independent country, and that "Iran decides for its own nuclear industry," he said.

Iran's approach in the ongoing talks is to remove and neutralize U.S. sanctions, he stressed.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (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 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.

The talks on reviving the JCPOA began in April 2021 in the Austrian capital of Vienna but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.

A new round of talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in Vienna on Thursday.