US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said he anticipates that even if Iran and the United States return to compliance with the nuclear deal, hundreds of US sanctions on Tehran would remain in place.
"I would anticipate that even in the event of a return to compliance with the JCPOA, hundreds of sanctions will remain in place, including sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. If they are not inconsistent with the JCPOA, they will remain unless and until Iran's behavior changes," Blinken told a Senate committee.
Monitoring of Iran's activities by the UN nuclear watchdog as outlined in an agreement recently extended until June 24 must be allowed to continue or risk undermining talks on reviving the nuclear deal, the United States said separately.
"We strongly encourage Iran to avoid any action that would prevent the collection of or IAEA access to the information necessary for it to quickly re-establish ... continuity of knowledge," a US statement to a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors said.
"Such action would, at a minimum, seriously complicate ongoing efforts to reach an understanding on how Iran can return to compliance with its JCPOA commitments in return for a similar US resumption," it said, referring to the 2015 deal by its full name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
