Tehran (Iran), January 26: Iran expects the United States to "quickly" lift sanctions on the Iranian banking sector, so it can access its own assets abroad to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, the Iranian government's spokesman said on Tuesday.
"It is expected that (the new U.S. government) will free up the transfer of Iranian-owned foreign exchange resources, and quickly end the banking sanctions in order to (let Iran) access financial assets," Ali Rabiei said at a virtual press briefing, official news agency IRNA reported.
The spokesman made the remark when commenting the Iranian government's plans to combat the coronavirus epidemic.
Answering a question on whether the Iranian authorities have had contact with the new U.S. administration, Rabiei said no such contact has been established, and Tehran has no plans to initiate any dialogue for the moment.
Instead, he further said, the Iranian government is waiting to see Washington's official policy regarding the return to its commitments and "the lifting of its illegal sanctions, which is an inseparable part of those commitments."
The official voiced hope that the U.S. government will make "practical steps" to "prove its good will and build confidence" before the situation becomes "more complicated."
According to a law passed in December 2020 by the Iranian parliament, he recalled, inspections of Iran's nuclear program related to the Additional Protocol of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will be limited starting around the third week of February.
"It should be noted that inspections under the Safeguards Agreement will continue ... as usual" he stressed, noting that most of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s inspections and camera monitoring activity in Iran belong to the Safeguards Agreement.
Source: Xinhua