By Parisa Hafezi

VIENNA (Reuters – Iranian President Ebrahim Rashi told exporters of gas on Tuesday not to violate any US sanctions against Tehran. The government stated that any attempt at a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with other world powers should be lifted such restrictions.

“The members of this forum should not recognise those sanctions…(because) in today’s world we see that the sanctions are not going to be effective,” Raisi told a gas exporters conference in Doha.

Reuters last week reported that a U.S.-Iranian agreement is being formed in Vienna. This follows months of indirect negotiations to revive the nuke pact, which was abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018. Trump also imposed severe sanctions against Iran.

Iran’s 2015 agreement with world powers restricted Tehran’s enrichment to uranium, making it more difficult for Tehran to produce nuclear weapons material, if necessary, in exchange for an end to international sanctions.

Ali Bahadori Jahromi, a cabinet spokesperson said that any sanctions “that… deal with Iran’s economic benefit from the (nuclear] deal must be lifted.”

Tehran went beyond what was allowed by the agreement in 2019, rebuilding its stockpiles and refining it to a higher fisile purity.

Iran requested legal assurances from the United States that it would not withdraw the agreement. Washington, however, says this is impossible.

Draft text of the agreement mentioned several other issues such as unfreezing the billions of dollars of Iranian funds in South Korean bank accounts and the release Western prisoners being held in Iran.