Iran’s top diplomat said the United States has not demonstrated any serious determination to support its verbal claims that it is ready to return to the nuclear deal with Iran from which Washington withdrew under former president Donald Trump in 2018.
In an interview with Iran daily newspaper, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian talked about the diplomatic efforts launched to resume talks, several rounds of which have been already held in the Austrian capital Vienna, to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“When I was in New York [for the UN General Assembly], I received demands [for Iran] to return to the Vienna talks and restart negotiations from the point that the parties had reached before Iran stopped taking part in those talks,” he said.
The senior diplomat explained, “I told the three European countries [that are signatories to the JCPOA], and Josep Borrell (the EU foreign policy chief) and [UN chief Antonio] Guterres that ... perhaps a simpler way is to agree [to return to talks] at the point where Trump left off.”
“I personally believe that if there were serious will in America to return to the JCPOA, there would be no need to all these talks. It would be enough for the US president [Joe Biden] to issue an executive order tomorrow and announce that they would return to the point where Trump left [the JCPOA]. The problem, however, is that we hear in their messages that the Americans do possess this will and intent, but we do not see it in their actions,” Amir-Abdollahian noted.
The remarks came a day after the US and its European allies said Iran needed to change course to “quickly reach and implement an understanding on returning to the full compliance” with the JCPOA, in remarks that followed the announcement of fresh US sanctions on Tehran, which, according to Iran, proved that the US “is not trustworthy at all.”
Iran and six world powers, including the US, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany, signed the JCPOA in July 2015. The agreement removed international sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear activities.
The deal, however, was unilaterally abandoned by the US in 2018 despite Iran’s full compliance with its nuclear undertakings, as repeatedly certified by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The US then unleashed a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran which practically deprived the country of all of the deal’s economic benefits.
Iran fully honored its nuclear obligations for an entire year, after which it decided to ramp up its nuclear work as a legal “remedial measure” against the US violation of the deal and the abject failure on the part of the other signatories, the E3 in particular, to safeguard its benefits.
Need for Goodwill Gesture
Amir-Abdollahian criticized the Biden administration for sticking to the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy against Iran despite its rhetoric to do away with the “failed policy”.
The foreign minister said he told top diplomats trying to mediate between Tehran and Washington that there must be a sign from the American side to show that the US is steadfast and serious in its claim to return to the JCPOA.
“You must do something to show your goodwill,” he said, addressing US officials, adding, “For instance, release $10 billion of Iran’s [frozen] money in foreign banks. Only then will it become clear that Biden is true to his stated intentions.”
The top diplomat stated that he also told European officials that Iran expects them to put pressure on the American side, instead of acting passively toward the US as the party that violated the JCPOA.
“I told Borrell that we will return to the negotiating table, but you, as the coordinator in the JCPOA [restoration] process who are so concerned and insist that we should return to the negotiating table must also put pressure on the United States.”
Most of the time, Iran’s foreign minister complained, “it seems as though the European Union and the three European countries only put pressure on us and are inactive toward the United States.”
Back in April, Iran and the remaining parties to the landmark nuclear deal began negotiations to restore the deal. The talks were paused in late June after Iran’s presidential election, but Iran announced on Wednesday that the talks will resume in November.
