US weighing $1b in humanitarian aid for Iran as a show of goodwill - CNN

Iran, on its end, continues to demand sanction relief instead in order to comply with a new agreement, according to the report.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Updated: MAY 7, 2021 09:09
Police stand outside a hotel where a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, is held in Vienna, Austria, April 20, 2021. (photo credit: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER)
Police stand outside a hotel where a meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, is held in Vienna, Austria, April 20, 2021.
(photo credit: REUTERS/LEONHARD FOEGER)
The United States is considering the option of unfreezing $1 billion in Iranian funds to be used for humanitarian aid purposes as a possible goodwill gesture in the attempt to reach a new nuclear deal, CNN reported on Thursday, citing three sources who had been briefed on the internal deliberations with the Islamic Republic.
According to the report, the aid will be transferred to a Swiss Channel, called Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement, which is designed to bring humanitarian aid to the citizens of Iran without violating US sanctions.  
"If it demonstrates the kind of good faith that can cause reciprocal good faith from the Iranian side, then it is potentially a good step forward," Thomas Countryman, who served as US assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation from 2011 to 2017, told CNN.
Iran, on its end, continues to instead demand sanction relief in order to comply with a new agreement, according to the report.
A senior US State Department official said on Thursday that there could be an agreement within weeks for both to resume compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iranian authorities decide to do so.


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