Iranian negotiator: Sanctions would be lifted immediately

 

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iranian official participating in talks on limiting his country’s nuclear program said Tuesday that international negotiators have agreed to lift sanctions on Iran’s oil, gas and banking sectors as soon as a deal is implemented.

“Sanctions have many aspects, there are unilateral sanctions, U.S. sanctions, [European Union] sanctions, [U.N. Security Council] sanctions … I should say that many of these aspects have been resolved, but still there are some limited areas that also need to be resolved, and we are now concentrating on those remaining technical aspects with regard to the sanctions,” Foreign Ministry official Hamid Baeidinejad told state-controlled Press TV.

“The termination of oil sanctions, gas sanctions, financial banking … many of them have been resolved. … But still there are a limited number of areas that are still under negotiations, which we hope we can resolve them and then we can admit that the whole issue of sanctions is resolved.”

His comments are likely to come as a surprise to many members of Congress, where the issue of sanctions relief is at the heart of the dispute between lawmakers and the Obama administration over congressional approval of a deal.

Many of the sanctions Baeidinejad mentioned are enacted into U.S. law and would need to be rescinded by legislation. Further, a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the panel’s top Democrat, would tie President Obama’s ability to waive any sanctions against Iran to the process of congressional oversight of any nuclear deal.

Obama has refused to submit any deal to Congress for approval, and the White House has said he would veto the Corker-Menendez bill.

Corker has scheduled an April 14 markup for the bill before his committee, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has promised a quick floor vote. Supporters say they’re confident it will gain enough votes in both chambers of Congress to override Obama’s expected veto. /End/