Page 6 - IRANRptNov21

2.0 Politics
2.1 Biden pledges US would not leave a revived nuclear
deal unless Tehran broke its terms
Joe Biden, attempting to coax Iran into re-entering negotiations on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, on October 31 pledged that if the US returned to the agreement, it would only subsequently leave if Tehran clearly broke its terms.
Although Iran has said it will return to the talks on the deal, known as the JCPOA, by the end of November, major powers in the west have become increasingly anxious that the delay in returning to the talks caused by Iran’s new hardline presidency is a subterfuge; they worry that Tehran has been using the lengthy postponement to build up its uranium stockpile, work around UN nuclear inspections and increase its knowhow in the field of advanced centrifuges that produce highly enriched uranium. Though Iran continues to insist it has no ambition to develop a nuclear weapon, western officials are concerned that Iran’s “breakout” time for developing such a weapon could decrease to the point that the value of returning to the JCPOA would be minimal.
Biden made his commitment, responding to one of Iran’s negotiating priorities, in a joint statement issued with Germany, France and the UK. It came after a meeting on the margins of the G20 in Rome attended by Biden, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Boris Johnson.
Part of the statement read: “We welcome President Biden’s clearly demonstrated commitment to return the US to full compliance with the JCPOA and to stay in full compliance, so long as Iran does the same.”
However, such a pledge from Biden has limited worth because the JCPOA has never been endorsed by the US Senate and he may have little to no influence on the actions of future US administrations. After all, in May 2018 then US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the multilateral JCPOA even though the UN was stating that Iran was in full compliance with its terms. Its terms are designed to ensure the Iranian nuclear development programme stays entirely civilian in return for a shield against major economic sanctions being imposed on Iran. Trump said the deal was not tight or tough enough. Europe object to the Trump walkout but in the years since has stopped short of offering Iran meaningful assistance to protect its economy from Trump's swingeing sanctions, so tough that Tehran described them as amounting to an "economic war".
In an interview published at the weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quite dismissive of the US efforts to pave the way for new JCPOA talks in saying that that there was no need for the negotiation and that the simplest solution would be for Biden to issue an executive order saying he was returning to the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions.
6 IRAN Country Report November 2021 www.intellinews.com