Iran Claims US Sanctions Cost US$1 Trillion, Demands Compensation

A major crisis was narrowly averted Sunday over Iran's nuclear facilities and the planned booting of IAEA inspectors from key sites, scheduled according to a prior Iranian parliament decision for Feb. 21. Tehran reached a last-minute agreement with the UN nuclear watchdog, now being described as a temporary "technical understanding" to keep the inspections going for another three months.
According to the agreement, the IAEA will no longer conduct last-minute "snap inspections" after Tehran argued that it shouldn't be subject to such after the US tore up the deal under Trump. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said Sunday that "This is not a replacement for what we used to have. This is a temporary solution that allows us to continue to give to the world assurances of what is going on there, in the hope that we can return to a fuller picture," as cited in CNN.

The fact that Iran did not in the end boot the inspectors or block access to sites is a positive sign for the possibility of restored talks with the US about rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal. Last week the Biden administration said it's ready to sit down for EU-sponsored negotiations, something which Iran initially appeared to rebuff but now is giving signals of readiness to participate in. However, adding to its list of demands - perhaps toward additional leverage - Iran said Sunday it estimates unilateral sanctions by the United States has caused US$1 trillion worth of damage to its economy.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Sunday that any follow-up negotiations to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal must include "compensation" for such lasting economic damage. "When we meet, we will raise compensation," he told state-run PressTV in an interview. Zarif explained:

"Whether those compensations will take the form of reparation, or whether they take the form of investment, or whether they take the form of measures to prevent a repeat of what Trump did."
He described that in total some 800 sanctions on all levels of the economy led to a loss of US$1 trillion, and that any further sanctions would result in Tehran's final exit from the JCPOA. "This is not a threat. We are simply exercising the remedial measures foreseen in the JCPOA," Zarif stressed.

"The situation Europe has created for itself is that it has to wait for the US to make a decision. It lives at the behest and mercy of the US," he said. "Now, they should convince the US to come back [to the nuclear deal] at least to allow them … to maintain their dignity and allow them to fulfill their obligations. That's not a tall order."

So far the Biden admin has only introduced meager steps such as dropping travel restrictions on top level Iranian diplomats Trump had enacted, as well as abandoning the push for "snapback" sanctions at the UN. - Oil Price