President Joe Biden’s government dodged an Iranian offer to coordinate both countries’ return to nuclear deal commitments, arguing that the Islamic Republic must first reinstate the suspended restrictions in response to the total abandonment of the deal by the United States almost three years ago .
The agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in 2015 by the USA and Iran, alongside China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Former President Donald Trump left the deal in 2018. Facing severe U.S. sanctions, Iran has started enriching uranium beyond its designated limits, something the Biden government says is blocking the US’s return to the deal.
“If Iran fully resumes its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States will do the same,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at his first press conference on Tuesday, “and then we would use that as a platform to build a longer and stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern. “
He emphasized, however, that “we are very far from that”.
Tehran has pledged to reinstate these limits, which Iranian officials argue were taken within the framework of the agreement’s dispute settlement clause, but only if Washington – as the party that first withdrew – fulfilled its obligations.
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, proposed a different approach, in which the two countries would synchronize their JCPOA-related movements under the supervision of the European Union.
The senior Iranian diplomat said that in his role as JCPOA commissioner, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, could “choreograph the actions that need to be taken by the United States and the actions that need to be taken by Iran”.
He suggested that this is the best way to go.
“Clearly, Iran’s actions have always been monitored and certified by the IAEA and we show that we have kept our promises,” said Zarif. “The side that was unable to show that it kept its promises was the United States and, as I said, the United States has to prove its good faith, we have already proved our good faith.”
He repeated his offer to pave the way for the resolution of the dispute.
“If we are far from the strict limitations of the nuclear deal, it is because the United States has tried to impose a total economic war on Iran,” said Zarif. “Now, if this stops, we will return to full compliance.”
NICHOLAS KAMM / Pool / AFP / Getty Images
Borrell and his team, for their part, “are working hard to get JCPOA back on track,” spokesman Peter Stano told Agence France-Presse.
Price said that American diplomats have not yet opened the issue with the Iranian side. And although he said that negotiating a new nuclear deal is an issue that “cannot wait” and a challenge that the new government must “face immediately”, he indicated that Iran is “very far” from taking the initial steps needed to get diplomacy back on track.
“Iran has distanced itself from compliance on a number of fronts and there are many steps in that process,” said Price.
Among them, he listed “consult our allies, consult our partners, consult Congress before we get to the point where we are going to get directly involved with the Iranians and willing to accept any type of proposal, especially since we have been very clear about the proposal that we put on the table. “
The State Department did not immediately respond to Newsweekrequest for comment from.
Reuters later quoted an unnamed US official as saying “there is no rejection” at the moment.
“We have not started negotiations with Iran, or with anyone, because our priority is to consult” the partners in the nuclear agreement and the region, the official said.
Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon, but the international community has expressed skepticism about this statement. Still, the JCPOA was built to allay these fears, imposing strict restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions.
Biden and several senior officials, some of whom were involved in implementing the JCPOA during the administration of former President Barack Obama, criticized Trump’s decision to abandon the deal, but have so far rejected a hasty return.
Using similar language heard from Blinken on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during his opening press conference on Wednesday that the United States and Iran were “far” from returning to JCPOA negotiations.
In response, the Iranian permanent mission to United Nations spokesman Alireza Miryousefi said Newsweek that “the United States, as a party that violated not only the JCPOA, but also UNSC Resolution 2231 – in violation of international law – must comply with both and suspend the sanctions it imposed”.
UN Security Council resolution 2231 supported the approval of the JCPOA and paragraph 36 allows Iran to “cease to fulfill its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part and / or to notify the UN Security Council that it believes that the issue constitutes a significant non-compliance, “a clause the country argues that justifies its further enrichment amid the withdrawal from the United States and European failures to normalize trade ties as a result of Washington sanctions.
“Iran is not ‘violating’ the agreement, it just triggered paragraph 36, which allows Iran to take corrective measures in the face of continued non-compliance by other parties,” said Miryousefi at the time.
With Iran once again getting rich at higher levels, the Biden government has raised the alarm about the Islamic Republic’s potential to speed up the time to obtain a nuclear weapon if it seeks it.
At his confirmation hearing two weeks ago, Blinken estimated this time at around four to three months, about half the time cited on Tuesday by Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz during a radio interview with Kan.
Israel is among some selected nations that oppose JCPOA or any similar agreement. Also critical of the deal was Saudi Arabia, another close US partner in the Middle East, where the rise of the nuclear dispute was accompanied by increased unrest on several fronts, including Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
This article and its title have been updated to include comments from an unidentified US employee.