{"id":3305,"date":"2020-12-22T03:06:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T03:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=142073"},"modified":"2020-12-22T03:06:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T03:06:13","slug":"iran-nuclear-deal-parties-await-u-s-return-to-accord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/22\/iran-nuclear-deal-parties-await-u-s-return-to-accord\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Nuclear Deal Parties Await U.S. Return To Accord"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal said December 21 they were preparing for a possible return of the United States to the accord.<\/p>\n

President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on January 20, has said he will try to rejoin the deal, which was struck when he was vice president.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement following a virtual foreign ministers\u2019 meeting on the ailing nuclear deal, Germany, France, and the UK, along with accord signatories China, Russia, and Iran, said they were ready to \u201cpositively address\u201d a U.S. return to the nuclear accord.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinisters acknowledged the prospect of a return of the U.S. to the JCPOA and underlined their readiness to positively address this in a joint effort,\u201d they said in a statement,<\/a><\/strong> referring to the formal name of the accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action.<\/p>\n

“Ministers reiterated their deep regret towards the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement,” they added.<\/p>\n

The three European powers, known as the E3, have struggled to keep the JCPOA on life support since President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018 and imposed punishing sanctions on Iran under a so-called \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

In response, Iran has gradually breached parts of the agreement restricting the amount of enriched uranium it can stockpile and the purity to which the uranium is enriched. Iran says it can come back into compliance with the deal once the United States and E3 fulfill their end of the agreement by providing Tehran economic relief promised under the accord.<\/p>\n

Biden has suggested he will reenter the JCPOA if Iran complies with the agreement, leaving other issues of concern such as Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles and support for regional proxies to \u201cfollow on\u201d agreements.<\/p>\n

Iran says its missile program and regional policies are off the table, and Washington and the E3 must first comply with the nuclear agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenegotiation is out of question,\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter after the ministers\u2019 meeting, reiterating Iran will not agree to a new deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran will rapidly reverse remedial measures in response to U.S. unlawful withdrawal\u2014and blatant E3 breaches\u2014when US\/E3 perform their duties. The Iranian people MUST feel the effects of sanctions lifting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

EU foreign ministers appear to be coalescing around the idea that the first priority should be to save what\u2019s left of the nuclear accord, before adding more complicated and contentious issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are standing at a crossroads today,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters in Berlin, adding that the deal’s fate will be determined in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make possible a rapprochement under Biden, there must be no more tactical maneuvers of the kind we have seen plenty of in recent times\u2014they would do nothing but further undermine the agreement,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity that is now being offered\u2014this last window of opportunity \u2014must not be squandered,\u201d Maas said. \u201cWe made that very clear today to Iran in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complicating the situation is the assassination in November of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh near Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel and, indirectly, the United States, raising the possibility that Iran or one of its regional proxies will retaliate.<\/p>\n

In response to the killing, hardliners in Iran\u2019s parliament passed a bill calling for the further expansion to Iran’s nuclear program and an end to inspections of nuclear facilities by the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry said it opposes the bill and President Hassan Rohani\u2019s moderate government has suggested he will not sign it into law. IAEA inspections are considered one of the key features keeping the nuclear deal alive.<\/p>\n

All sides are also running up against the timeline of June elections in Iran, in which Rohani will not be running because of term limits. Analysts say a possible hardliner victory in those elections would complicate saving the JCPOA, which is opposed by Rohani’s domestic critics.<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n

With reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal said December 21 they were preparing for a possible return of the United States to the accord. President-elect Joe Biden,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3306,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3305\/revisions\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}