Washington miscalculated maximum pressure on Iran

Mikhail Ulyanov in a tweet on Thursday once again criticized the US campaign of maximum pressure on Iran.

"The course of the #ViennaTalks proves once again that US overestimated the influence of maximum pressure on #Iran," he wrote.

"Pressure continues but Iran isn’t in the rush although it knows that the sooner the talks are completed the sooner sanctions are lifted. Sanctions are not the only factor that is taken into account," he added.

Ulyanov's latest comments on the Vienna talks come as the city hosted six rounds of talks to revive the JCPOA, and speculation about the seventh round of talks has intensified in recent days.

Since April, representatives from Iran and the P4+1 group of countries have been held talks in Vienna aimed at revitalizing the JCPOA and bringing the US back to compliance. The US has sent a delegation to Vienna but it is not attending the JCPOA Joint Commission talks directly as Washington is no longer a party to the deal. It has, however, held separate talks with the other parties to the JCPOA.

Under former president Donald Trump, the US left the JCPOA in 2018 and returned the sanctions that had been lifted against Tehran as part of the agreement. US President Joe Biden has said Washington is willing to return to the pact if Tehran first suspends its countermeasures taken in response to US violations and reimposition of sanctions.

Iran says the onus is on the US to revive the deal as it was Washington, not Tehran, that left the internationally recognized accord in defiance of global criticism.