TEHRAN: Iran has decided to withdraw from being the part of nuclear talks, saying the US went against the spirit of the agreement by expanding its sanctions blacklist.
On November 24, Iran with the US and five other world powers struck a historic six-month nuclear deal in Geneva, allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium but only to five per cent that is enough for energy production, but not enough to produce material needed for the nuclear warheads.
In a statement, Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said that the negotiations were halted by the Iranian delegation because of new US sanctions.
Araqchi said that the Iranian negotiating team has halted the talks at this stage and are headed back to Tehran from Vienna due to lack of commitment from the US side to the agreement.
Iranian chief nuclear negotiator said the US move went against the spirit of the deal struck in Geneva under which the powers undertook to impose no further sanctions for six months in exchange for Iran curbing its controversial nuclear activities.
Under the nuclear deal, Iran agreed to freeze parts of its suspect nuclear program for six months in return for some $7 billion in relief from Western sanctions.
However, it emerged that approximately a dozen international firms were blacklisted for evading US-imposed sanctions on Thursday, despite warnings.
On the other hand, talking to newsmen in Tel Aviv, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that nuclear talks between world powers and Iran are expected to resume soon.
Kerry expected to proceed further for the full implementation of interim agreement reached last month.
