Iranian foreign minister calls to lift UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for lifting the sanctions imposed on his country by the UN Security Council in order to help reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear programme, Anadolu news agency reported.

This comes as Iran is set to begin another round of negotiations in September with the P5+1 powers – the five Security Council members, US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany – during the annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September.

Iran’s Fars news agency reported Zarif as saying, during a press conference held after his meeting in Tehran with Romania’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carmen Burlaco, that he also plans to have a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York.

Regarding lifting the sanctions, Zarif pointed out that: “The P5+1 cannot annul the UN Security Council sanctions by themselves, but they as the five permanent Security Council members know that no agreement will be put into effect unless the P5+1 members comply with their undertaking for removing the UN Security Council sanctions against Iran.”

The UN Security Council, pressured by the US, first placed sanctions on Iran in 2006 after the Iranian government refused to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which it insists is for peaceful purposes.