Reaching a final agreement on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal needs the United States’ acceptance of realities, as well as flexibility and initiatives, Iran’s top diplomat said.
“@POTUS cannot impose US’ one-sided views through accusation & sanction,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a tweet, addressing US President Joe Biden.
Tehran and Washington have been engaged in indirect negotiations in the Austrian capital Vienna since April 2021 to restore the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.
The JCPOA has been unraveling since the US pulled out four years ago and Iran began exceeding its limits in response to the US reimposition of tough sanctions.
Vienna negotiations reached an impasse in March over a few outstanding differences, and EU-brokered proximity talks in Doha, Qatar, late last month did not produce the desired result in terms of addressing the remaining bilateral issues.
Western countries accuse Iran of making extraneous and maximalist demands while Tehran blames the US for lack of political initiative and sticking with previous positions.
Amir-Abdollahian stressed in his tweet that “if window of diplomacy is still open, that’s because of Iran’s dynamic initiatives.”
“Diplomacy is not a one-way street,” he added.
Realistic Understanding
The foreign minister stressed in separate remarks that Iran wants the JCPOA to work well and seriously pursues a good and lasting agreement.
“We believe that Iran must be able to receive complete economic benefits from the JCPOA and the US must well understand the reality about [economic] guarantees,” he said in a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome, according to IRNA.
Along this line, he added, Iran has always put forward new initiatives, while the US has failed to act correctly and logically.
“They must make their understanding of this issue realistic.”
Iran demands a full removal of sanctions plus guarantees that its economic interests under the JCPOA will not be jeopardized again in the future.
The Biden administration refuses to entertain Iran’s legitimate demands and tends to resort to force instead, the same policy its predecessor fruitlessly used to draw concessions out of Iran.
“My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do,” Biden has said in recent remarks.
He said the US has reunited with allies and partners in Europe and around the world to isolate Iran.
“Now it is Iran that is isolated until it returns to the nuclear deal my predecessor abandoned with no plan for what might replace it,” he contended.
He pointed to an anti-Iran resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors as an example of such efforts.
“Last month, more than 30 countries joined us to condemn Iran’s lack of cooperation with the IAEA on its past nuclear activities,” he said.
The resolution was opposed to by key member states Russia and China.
Tehran reacted to the measure by curbing its cooperation with the IAEA, including the removal of 27 surveillance cameras operating beyond safeguards obligations.
