TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President's Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi said that his country will remain committed to its undertakings based on the nuclear deal only if the other sides revive their undertakings.
According to Ashura reporting from FarsNews:
Vaezi told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday that given the lack of relations and contacts between Iran and the US, his country is not informed of the next US government’s decision about the nuclear deal.
“The US government will start work two months later and we do not have so much contacts to know what decision they will make and whatever you know, we know too,” he added.
“But Biden and Harris have said in their remarks that they will return to the nuclear deal because it will help global peace but the nuclear deal is a comprehensive agreement that all parties have signed and if they do not revive their undertakings, we cannot act upon our undertakings either and therefore, they should first take action based on their undertakings,” Vaezi said.
US President-elect Joe Biden has recently said in a CNN article that he wants a renegotiation of the contents of the deal before he agrees to rejoin the agreement.
“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy. If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations. With our allies, we will work to strengthen and extend the nuclear deal's provisions, while also addressing other issues of concern,” he wrote.
US President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its "so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the negotiating table.
In response to the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its nuclear commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran has particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European signatories to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its business interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On January 5, Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry, whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of stockpiled uranium or research and development.
In relevant remarks last Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said that the US should lift all sanctions imposed against his country in the past 3 years before returning to the nuclear deal.
“If the US wants to return, all sanctions which have been imposed in this period of time (past 3 years) should be removed. This is not a precondition for returning to the nuclear deal but it is the nuclear deal itself,” Araqchi said.
He added that of course there are other challenges that Iran and the US should talk about (within the framework of the nuclear deal) and the ground should be paved for the US return to the nuclear deal in a way that will meet the Iranian people’s interests.
“The world is now speaking about one point and the entire world has accepted that the (US) policy of maximum pressure has failed and did not attain any of its goals,” Araqchi said.
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