TEHRAN (Iran News) – A senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution says the US must lift all sanctions against Iran and that Tehran will not accept anything less. “I believe they cannot return to the JCPOA if they do not remove sanctions,” Ali Larijani told the Persian service of ‘Khamenei.ir’.

“America’s sanctions are 100% against their commitments and they cannot return [to JCPOA]. It is absolutely unacceptable that they say ‘we will return and then negotiate’. Their return depends on fulfilling their commitments.”

“The basic principle is that the sanctions should be lifted. There is no doubt on this issue and if they do not do this, they cannot join [the JCPOA] because they have not met their obligations. A road map is needed for how to do this and if they think that they can fool Iran with for example one chocolate, that will show their lack of vigilance,”  the former Iranian Parliament speaker said.

The remarks come days after Tehran announced it has started 20% uranium enrichment in response to the failure of JCPOA signatories to fulfill their commitments. Tehran says all the steps in decreasing commitments to the Nuclear Deal is reversible as soon as other parties to the deal meet their obligations and secure Iran’s economic interest under the deal.

Iran is strongly holding this position and says other than compensating the damage imposed on the country in the past years, sanctions should be at least lifted, and then, they can join 5+1 and further discussions will be made, Larijani added.

Asked about claims of some Western countries on negotiating over Iran missile program or regional presence in future talks, Larijani stressed that such topics are rejected and that “we must be sensitive toward this in the political arena”.

“Power is one aspect of politics. It is probable to conduct dialogue in diplomacy but if you are not equipped with the other side of power, your diplomacy will not proceed. They aim to take away this aspect of power from you so that you cannot proceed in diplomacy,” he said.

Westerners have nothing to do with Iran’s missile program, the adviser highlighted, calling for vigilance during diplomatic talks. “Iran has always been flag-bearer of dialogue but the point is that one should not eliminate the tool of power and the movement of producing knowledge should not be slowed down.”

Elsewhere, Larijani said that the nuclear issue is mainly an ‘excuse’ for imposing pressure against the Islamic Republic. “Did we have nuclear power during the first years of the Revolution that they started a war against us? If they have a problem with the nuclear issue, why do they say other things now?”