Iran on Friday called on the new US administration to unconditionally lift sanctions imposed by Donald Trump on the Islamic republic to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, warning against any concessions.
Just two days after US President Joe Biden took office, Iranian secretary of state Mohammad Javad Zarif published an op-ed within the US policy magazine Foreign Affairs on Tehran’s view towards saving the deal.
The agreement has been largely in tatters since former president Donald Trump withdrew from it unilaterally in 2018 and reimposed harsh sanctions as a part of a policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran.
Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal was agreed between Iran, the united states, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.
It offered sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and guarantees it might not seek an atomic bomb. Iran has maintained it’s only pursued a civilian nuclear energy programme.
“The new administration in Washington features a fundamental option to make,” Zarif, who is taken into account one among the architects of the 2015 nuclear deal, wrote within the op-ed.
“It can embrace the failed policies of the Trump administration,” or Biden “can choose a far better path by ending Trump’s failed policy of ‘maximum pressure’ and returning to the deal his predecessor abandoned,” he added.
“But if Washington instead insists on extracting concessions, then this chance are going to be lost.”
- ‘Collective efforts’ –
The sanctions targeted Iran’s vital oil sales and international banking ties, plunging its economy into a deep recession.
Since 2019, Iran has suspended its compliance with most of the bounds set by the deal in response to Washington’s abandonment of sanctions relief and what Tehran deemed as Europe’s inaction to supply it with the JCPOA’s economic benefits.
The Iranian government has signalled a readiness to interact with Biden, who took office on January 20 and who has expressed willingness to return to diplomacy with Tehran.
Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, said at a Senate hearing Tuesday that Trump’s policies had made Iran “more dangerous”.
Blinken confirmed Biden’s desire for Washington to return to the nuclear agreement, but said that was conditional on Tehran’s return to strict compliance with its commitments.
But Tehran has insisted that Washington must first lift all sanctions and return to its own JCPOA obligations.
“The incoming Biden administration can still salvage the nuclear agreement, but as long as it can muster the real political will in Washington to demonstrate that the us is prepared to be a true partner in collective efforts,” Zarif wrote.
“The administration should begin by unconditionally removing, with full effect, all sanctions imposed, reimposed, or relabeled since Trump took office,” he added.
“In turn, Iran would reverse all the remedial measures it’s taken within the wake of Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.”
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