Joe Biden in an interview released on February 7 by CBS News gave a simple “No” when asked if the US would lift sanctions on Iran in order to get Tehran back to the negotiating table to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

Hours earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had said that Washington must lift all the sanctions if it wants Iran to return to compliance with the accord. "If they want Iran to return to its commitments, the US must lift all sanctions in practice, then we will do verification and see if the sanctions were lifted correctly, then we will return to our commitments," Khamenei said.

Iran has stepped up its enrichment of uranium—to a level that breaches an undertaking in the nuclear deal designed to keep the Iranian nuclear development programme entirely civilian in return for a shield against major sanctions—as one of a number of breaches of the nuclear deal (formally the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) as a reponse to the situation in which it receives no meaningful benefits by staying in the accord because Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump unilaterally walked out of the agreement nearly three years ago in favour of pursuing Iran policy aims by hitting Tehran hard with sanctions. Biden has said he will take the US back into the deal—a move that would necessarily entail the dropping of sanctions—if it can be verified that Iran has restored the full compliance with the deal it had before Trump ripped up US JCPOA participation.

But in earlier comments, Khamenei said: “Americans and Europeans have no right to set out conditions because they have violated their obligations under the JCOPA. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the party that can lay down conditions, because of its compliance with commitments.

“Iran will come back to compliance with the JCPOA when the US removes all sanctions with action not in words or on paper. And the sanctions removal will be verified by Iran. This is the definite policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, agreed upon by all authorities; no one will infringe it.”

There is some prospect of Biden introducing some sweeteners in an attempt at drawing the Iranians into cooperation. Biden is reportedly considering easing economic pressure on Iran partly by accepting the provision of coronavirus crisis loans to Tehran from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He might also ease sanctions that place obstacles in the way of Iran receiving humanitarian aid, Bloomberg has reported, citing Biden administration sources.

Speaking on CNN on February 7, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that receiving compensation from the US for the cost of sanctions imposed by Washington was not a "precondition" for restoring the nuclear deal.

Zarif also urged Washington to act fast to return to the JCPOA in an interview published on February 6 in an Iranian newspaper. "Time is running out for the Americans, both because of the parliament bill and the election atmosphere that will follow the Iranian New Year," Zarif said in the interview in Hamshahri.

Iran's new year begins on March 21, and its presidential elections are in June.

"The more America procrastinates, the more it will lose," Zarif said. "We don't need to return to the negotiating table. It's America that has to find the ticket to come to the table."