The head of the Iranian parliament's economic committee, Mohammad-Reza Pourebrahimi says the Iranian economy is suffering from a daily loss of ten trillion rials [roughly 40 million dollars] as a result of sanctions and the non-implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The lawmaker rejected any talks with the Biden Administration on non-nuclear issues, insisting that sanctions must be lifted, and Iran agreed to the 2015 nuclear agreement only to have sanctions lifted at the time.

Speaking in an interview with the conservative Mehr news agency on Saturday [March 13] about possible negotiation with the United States without Washington first lifting sanctions, he said: "Negotiations with the United States were not initially meant to be Hezbollah, Hamas, regional issues and human rights."

"The only reason why the Islamic Republic entered talks with America over its nuclear program (in 2013) was that Tehran wanted [international] sanctions to be lifted in order to solve the people's economic problems," Pourebrahimi said.

He pointed out that that based on the JCPOA Iran was supposed to accept some limitations on its nuclear activities and move in the direction of transparency and confidence building; and the United States was supposed to lift all its unilateral sanctions on Iran.

"The Iranian President and Foreign Minister officially said that all the sanctions will be lifted as soon as the nuclear agreement is made. But so far not only none of the sanctions have been lifted, but the US has imposed new sanctions on Iran including those that affected the Central Bank and banned Iran's oil sale, and then Trump outrageously pulled out of the JCPOA" Pourebrahimi added. 

The UN did lift international nuclear sanctions after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed during the Obama administration, but Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in May 2018 and imposed US sanctions, demanding a new agreement.

The conservative lawmaker blamed President Hassan Rouhani’s centrist government and its reform camp allies for economic losses, saying, "This loss has been imposed on us by those who still claim Iran's problems can be solved by negotiating with the United States."

He claimed that negotiating with the United States will have no benefit for the people as it will create even more economic bottlenecks. He insisted that "Any negotiations without lifting the sanctions first would be an act of treason." Pourebrahimi further insisted that the Iranian parliament will not accept regional and international commitments.

This comes while President Joe Biden's critics in the United States argue that once the sanctions are lifted Iran has no reason to negotiate about its missile program, regional issues and its ambitions in the Middle East.

Pourebrahimi called the possible partial release of Iran's frozen assets in various countries rather than lifting all sanctions as "deceitful" and unacceptable. However, according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, there has been no decision to allow the release of frozen funds. 

Iran's ambassador to the UN Majid Takht Ravanchi reiterated in late February that even if the sanctions were lifted, Iran would demand compensation for its losses because of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA. This was in line with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's earlier advice.

In January, the Iranian parliament estimated Iran's losses as a result of the US pull-out from the JCPOA at $152 billion.

According to the daily $40 million loss mentioned by Pourebrahimi, Iran’s total loss since 2018 is less than $40 billion.