Tehran to Honor JCPOA Fully After US Complies With UNSCR 2231

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran would immediately return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal after the United States resumes its adherence to the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the agreement, and lifts all its sanctions. 
“This is not a time-consuming process … [President-elect Joe] Biden can do it in three executive orders once he is settled in the White House,” he said in an interview with the Persian newspaper Iran published on Wednesday.
He said this would be an automatic process without any need for negotiations or preconditions.  
Washington unilaterally exited the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under outgoing president, Donald Trump, in 2018 and imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran.
Iran scaled back its commitments in response to the pressure, vowing to reverse the steps when it could again enjoy JCPOA benefits. 
“If the US stops violating the resolution [2231] and sanctions are removed and there are no longer hurdles to Iran’s economic activities, Iran has declared that it would fulfill its JCPOA obligations,” Zarif said.  
He also dismissed claims that the Biden administration will not be able to revoke sanctions that Trump put in place due to American domestic legal systems, saying he can do it swiftly once he takes office.   
Biden has pledged to rejoin the deal if Iran returned to full compliance, but Zarif said the US is in no position to set preconditions and its return to JCPOA table would be the second step after its return to UNSCR 2231 and would need negotiations. 
“It is Iran that has the right to set preconditions … Americans have lost the privilege of JCPOA membership and regaining that privilege would certainly need measures on their part,” he said, adding it would need the consent of both Iran and other signatories. 
Zarif later said the US has no option but to return to its commitments because its policy of maximum pressure has failed, thanks to Iranian resistance. 
“The failure does not mean that we have benefited from the policy, but it means that the US has not achieved its purpose,” he said.