US, Iran to meet to discuss lifting sanctions

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, today to discuss lifting the sanctions imposed on Iran, Washington confirmed yesterday.

State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said: “US sanctions relief will be on the agenda when Kerry and Zarif meet on Friday.” He noted that the meeting between the two would not be attended by representatives from the US Treasury Department, the party responsible for lifting the sanctions.

This meeting is being held after the highest judicial branch in the US allowed American citizens who were harmed during the 1983 bombings in Beirut to receive compensation from frozen Iranian funds in a New York Bank. This caused Iran to doubt the US’s desire to lift the sanctions imposed on it, despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran adhered to the nuclear agreement it made with the P5+1 world powers last summer.

The Lebanese capital city of Beirut was struck by two truck bombs on 23 October 1983.  Targeting two separate buildings holding US and French forces, the explosions killed 299 soldiers – 241 Americans and 58 Frenchmen – in addition to six civilians and the two attackers. An Iranian citizen and an organisation affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah were accused of being behind the attack.