Biden Should Reverse Trump Policy to Save Nuclear Accord

Iran’s top diplomat said US President Joe Biden has to end his predecessor’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran and guarantee it economic relief from sanctions if he wants to restore the 2015 nuclear deal.
The remarks came a day after a top US official said time was short to reach an agreement to revive the pact, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said a window for diplomacy with the US remained open and that Iran is serious about reaching a durable agreement with Washington.
He also said that “as the person responsible for [Iran’s] diplomacy and negotiation team, honestly, what has caused the pause or cessation in the talks is the economic guarantees.”
“For a return to the JCPOA, Iran’s economic and trade activities should become normal and natural … the main obstacle is that we are not convinced that we, and the people of Iran, are going to benefit fully from the economic gains of the JCPOA.”
Talks to revive the landmark accord, which removed many sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear activities until the Trump administration left the pact in 2018 and reimposed penalties, remain stalled. 
Iran wants the US to reverse a 2019 Trump administration decision to list Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, a politically fraught decision for Biden ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Diplomats have failed to resolve the impasse and negotiate an end to the US penalties that have heavily restricted OPEC-member Iran’s exports of oil.
In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, US Special Envoy to Iran Robert Malley said that a return to the JCPOA would help keep a lid on Iranian nuclear activity that accelerated after Donald Trump’s decision to pull out, according to Bloomberg.
But Malley cautioned that time is running out after more than a year of start-and-stop talks in Vienna appear to have lost momentum. 
Since the US quit the accord, Tehran has gone beyond agreed-to limits on nuclear enrichment and, according to Malley and other experts, may be only weeks or months away from accumulating the fuel needed to build a nuclear weapon if that decision is made.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said their nuclear program is peaceful and not designed to build a weapon.

Part of Plot 

Iran says the IRGC designation was part of the Trump government’s strategy to prevent a future accord.
The US, however, insists the listing is not related to Iran’s atomic program and therefore falls outside the original remit of the nuclear pact. Removing the designation is highly unpopular with US lawmakers across the aisle.
Amir-Abdollahian said there was no tangible difference between the Iran policies of Biden and Trump and the latter’s strategy must be reversed. He did not say explicitly whether that had to include the removal of the IRGC terrorism designation. 
“The most important issue is that Iran’s economic sanctions are effectively removed and that Trump’s maximum pressure policies are lifted,” he said. “The Americans know very well what the realities are on the ground and what they need to do. We’ve left the window of diplomacy open and we are serious about reaching a lasting agreement.”
For the JCPOA to be revived, all “elements of Trump’s maximum pressure campaign should be removed,” something that Biden said he would do “from the very beginning of his presidential campaign,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
The minister also accused Israel of “holding US foreign policy hostage” by “inflating” the significance of the IRGC terrorism listing to block the restoration of the deal and any consequent economic benefits for Iran. 
The US envoy on Iran told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he thinks the prospects for reaching an agreement with Iran to revive the JCPOA are “at best, tenuous.”
Amir-Abdollahian put Malley’s comments down to pressure from the political establishment inside and outside the US. “We are receiving messages from Rob Malley and other US officials at the highest level... Mr. Biden, himself, which are a little different from what we hear from them [publicly].”
Iran has been “the most serious and most honest” in the talks, Amir-Abdollahian said. “But now, it is the US that has to take a decision. And I think if the Zionist lobby distances itself from the national interests of the US, just a little, Mr. Biden will be able to make the decision required to reach a good deal.”
If the Biden administration chooses not to take this “brave” decision, the Iranian government has “other options” on the table to help it navigate sanctions, just as it has for “the last 40 years,” he stressed.