WASHINGTON, February 22. /TASS/. Tehran assumes that potential agreements with Washington on Iran's nuclear program will include the lifting of some Western sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on CBS TV.

Speaking about the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, he noted: "Ten years have passed, and there is a new situation. Our nuclear program has advanced, it is technologically more advanced than at that time, and there are, of course, more sanctions and more pressures. So I believe that a better deal than the JCPOA or the 2015 nuclear deal is possible. And there are elements that could be much better than [in] the previous deal," he added.

"I negotiated that deal," Araghchi noted, referring to the JCPOA. "We went into so many details, but I think right now, there is no need for that much details. We can agree on basic things, and we can make sure that Iran's program, nuclear program, is peaceful and remains peaceful forever, and at the same time more sanctions would be lifted," he added.

In 2015, Iran, along with China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), resolving a crisis that had begun in 2002 amid Western accusations that Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons. However, in 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and reinstated all sanctions against Iran. In response, Tehran declared in 2020 that it would scale back its commitments under the JCPOA. Several attempts have been made to make a new agreement on the Iranian nuclear program or resume the 2015 deal but none of them has been successful.