Page 10 - IRANRptFeb21

2.6​ ​Iran reiterates ball in Biden’s court on reviving nuclear deal
Iran has no plans to hold talks with the Biden administration and is waiting for the new US president to take the first step to lift sanctions and return the US to the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement, Tehran's UN ambassador told NBC News late on January 25.
In his first interview since President Joe Biden was sworn in on January 20, the ambassador, Majid Takht Ravanchi, said that Iran has not spoken to the new administration yet.
"No, there has not been any conversation between Iran and the US after Biden came into office," Ravanchi said.
Asked if there were plans to open up a direct dialogue with Washington or indirect communication through an intermediary, perhaps via the Swiss government, which handles any official US communication with Tehra, Ravanchi said: "We are not planning to initiate anything."
"It's up to the US to decide what course of action to take. We're not in a hurry," he added.
Iran has previously said it will return to full compliance with the nuclear deal—agreed in 2015 between Iran, the US, France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China but unilaterally abandoned by then US president Donald Trump in May 2018—once Biden lifts the heavy sanctions his predecessor targeted at Tehran. On January 26, Russia repeated its view that it too supports this approach.
The deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, introduced strict limits on Iran's nuclear programme in return for easing economic sanctions, but the Trump sanctions, in Iran’s eyes, mean that even though it was in full compliance with the accord at the time Trump exited it, it has had no meaningful benefits from the deal for nearly three years.
“The ball is in the US court,” Ravanchi continued, making the case that as it was the US that breached the deal by withdrawing from it in the way that it did, it would be “absurd” to expect the first move in reviving the agreement to come from Iran.
Antony Blinken, who was confirmed by Congress as Biden’s secretary of state on January 26, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 19 that the Biden administration would first need to evaluate if Iran was complying with the JCPOA before agreeing to re-establish US participation in it.
Separately, Reuters reported on January 26 that Iran has threatened to block short-notice inspections of its nuclear facilities by the United Nations atomic watchdog.
Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei reportedly said that the first steps to restrict such inspections would begin in the first week of the Iranian month of Esfand, which starts on February 19.
“But it does not mean Iran will stop other inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA],” he added.
10​ IRAN Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com