US Achieves No New Outcome on JCPOA With Trump’s Mentality

The United States will achieve no outcome regarding the 2015 nuclear deal with the mentality of its ex-president Donald Trump, except what happened over the past few years, said a senior Iranian diplomat.
Speaking at a regular press briefing on Monday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Washington needs to both change its mentality and take into account the underlying realities, IRNA reported.  
“They know and we know that the maximum pressure policy has failed and Iran will not assent to anything less than the JCPOA,” he said, using he abbreviation of the nuclear deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The deal has been on shaky ground since Trump pulled the US out in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions as part of a maximum pressure campaign against Tehran, prompting it to eventually row back on its commitments in response.
New US President Joe Biden expressed willingness to rejoin the agreement, and fresh negotiations started in April between JCPOA parties and the US in Vienna, Austria, to find ways for both countries to resume compliance.
Significant progress was made over six rounds of talks, but there are still differences on key issues that need to be addressed before a comprehensive agreement is reached.

Transition Period  

The negotiations have come to a halt since their last round ended on June 20 as Iran is undergoing a change of government following its June 18 presidential elections.
Khatibzadeh said the talks are slated to resume after the new Cabinet is formed.
“We need to wait until the government is settled and ministers are appointed,” he said.
He added that Iran never quit the negotiations, but is currently going through a democratic transition of power in which changes are expected to occur in the composition of executive teams.
“The president [Ebrahim Raeisi] said explicitly during his inauguration that he has no hesitation in removing the sanctions,” he said.
The diplomat also reiterated that Iran is still a party to JCPOA and its measures are within the framework of the deal.
“The country who must return to JCPOA is America.”
Top European Union officials, including Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora who coordinates the Vienna talks, attended Raeisi’s inauguration ceremony.
EEAS spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said it was crucial to engage diplomatically with the new administration and to pass directly important messages.
During his visit, Mora met Iran’s top negotiator Abbas Araqchi, as well as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who outlined the challenges facing JCPOA’s revival and called on Europe to avoid supporting polices that are based on pressure and threat.
The EU diplomat also held talks with Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a potential candidate for the position of foreign minister in the new administration, who shared the new president’s views, according to Khatibzadeh.
An unnamed EU official also said on Saturday that Iran is ready to resume the talks from early September, citing Amir Abdollahian as saying in talks with Mora.