Tehran, February 21 (RHC)-- Iran’s foreign minister has urged the Joe Biden administration to unconditionally lift all sanctions imposed on Iran under former U.S. president Donald Trump after Washington retreated from some of Trump’s anti-Iran measures.

“U.S. acknowledged Pompeo’s claims re Res. 2231 had no legal validity,” Zarif wrote in a tweet on Friday, hours after the Biden administration rescinded Trump’s alleged restoration of UN sanctions on Iran back in September, which fell short of garnering enough support at the UN Security Council in the first place.

In recent weeks, Tehran and Washington have been at loggerheads over which side should first return to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal, which the Trump administration withdrew from in 2018 and tried to destroy with his so-called maximum pressure campaign.

“U.S. unconditionally & effectively lift all sanctions imposed, re-imposed or re-labeled by Trump,” Zarif said. “We will then immediately reverse all remedial measures.”  

Tehran argues that the U.S. should first lift all the sanctions put in place under Trump before the Islamic Republic returns to full compliance with the deal, as it was the US that caused the complication by pulling out of the deal, which in turn prompted Iran to take remedial measures.

Iran started to scale down its commitments under the deal, officially called the JCPOA, on May 8, 2019, a year after the US withdrawal. Since then, Tehran has consistently reassured the international community that it will return to full compliance as soon as other parties begin to honor their JCPOA commitments.