Iran’s Rouhani expects Biden to return to the Obama-era nuclear deal by dubbing Trump a ‘tyrant’

Iran’s Rouhani expects Biden to return to the Obama-era nuclear deal by dubbing Trump a ‘tyrant’

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Speaking at a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said the ball was “on the United States court now”.

“If Washington returns to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, we will also fully respect our commitments under the pact,” he said, adding in reference to Trump that “the era of a tyrant is over and today is the final day of his reign. sinister. ”

With Biden – who was a member of the Obama administration who negotiated the original deal – taking office on Thursday, there are high hopes for a rapprochement.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rouhani chastised Trump, saying his four years in office “have borne no fruit other than injustice and corruption and have caused problems for his own people and the world.”

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani speaks in parliament in the capital Tehran on September 3, 2019.

What was in the nuclear deal?

Officially called the Joint Global Action Plan, or JCPOA, the historic agreement aimed to limit Iran’s civilian nuclear program, thereby preventing the country from developing nuclear weapons.

The deal, struck in Vienna after two years of intense negotiations orchestrated by the Obama administration, was signed by Iran and six other nations in 2015.

Under the agreement, the Iranian government agreed on three main things: reducing the number of centrifuges in the country by two-thirds, cutting its stockpile of enriched uranium and limiting enrichment in progress to 3.67%, an amount sufficient for energy supply, but not enough to build a nuclear bomb.

In addition, Iran has been forced to limit uranium research and development and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certain access to its nuclear facilities.

In exchange for compliance, all nuclear sanctions on Iran were lifted in January 2016, reconnecting the country’s stagnant economy to international markets.

Trump dropped out of the deal in 2018, although the deal itself still exists, with Iran, France, the UK, Germany, China and Russia all still part of it. Since Washington left, however, Iran has increased uranium enrichment beyond the limits set by the agreement, raising concerns that Tehran could in the future pursue a nuclear weapons program.

Biden movement

Biden expressed a desire to return to the 2015 deal, writing to CNN last year that Trump had “recklessly dismissed a policy that was working to keep America safe and replaced it with one that compounded the threat.”

“I will offer Tehran a reliable way back to diplomacy,” wrote the then candidate in September. “If Iran again strictly complies with the nuclear agreement, the United States would re-join the agreement as a starting point for subsequent negotiations.”

Despite this, some feared that events in the final months of the Trump administration might tie Biden’s hands, as both the U.S. and Israel increased pressure on Iran, potentially undermining future diplomatic pleas.
In November, a top Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated near Tehran in an operation the government attributed to Israel, while in late December, US nuclear-capable B-52 bombers flew to the Middle East while defense officials were speaking. of the potential for conflict a year after Soleimani’s death.
While Iran announced this month that it had resumed uranium enrichment to 20% purity and seized a chemical tanker with a South Korean flag in the Persian Gulf, the anniversary passed without any conflict between US and Iran forces, opening up the door to the kind of diplomacy apparently received by Rouhani this week.

Steve George, Ramin Mostaghim and Mostafa Salem from CNN contributed to the report.

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