Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the United States has agreed to partially lift sanctions on Iranian oil and is set to unfreeze $12 billion worth of Iranian assets in the coming days.
The US Treasury Department announced a temporary easing of sanctions, allowing Iran to sell its oil and petrochemicals until August 1. US negotiators, led by Vice President JD Vance, said the decision to unfreeze assets and ease sanctions was taken after Iran showed serious commitment on nuclear issues and agreed to allow IAEA inspections, following an intense 18-hour-long negotiation session in Switzerland.
Shortly after the announcement, US President Donald Trump said any unfrozen Iranian assets would be used to buy US produce.
However, Iran’s Central Bank dismissed the claim, asserting that Tehran had no obligation to purchase American agricultural products.
Responding to critics of the Iranian delegation’s decision to hold talks with the US, Ghalibaf said the group went to Switzerland to stop Israel’s bloodshed in Lebanon.
“In one of the excellent programmes on IRIB, I saw them say that they wished Mehrabad Airport had been closed so the negotiating team wouldn’t go to Switzerland,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X, referring to a segment that aired on the country’s state broadcaster.
“I tell those dear ones: If we hadn’t gone to Switzerland, every moment more blood would have been shed from the muslims and Shias of Lebanon,” he added.
JD Vance said he believed the Iranians had made key concessions. He stated that Iran had agreed to allow nuclear weapons inspectors into the country for the first time in a long time and that the US would “bolster that inspection regime to make sure they can never have a nuclear weapon”.
