Page 10 - MEOG Week 44 2021

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Biden pledges not to walk away from

deal unless Tehran breaks terms

IRAN US President Joe Biden, attempting to coax Iran pave the way for new JCPOA talks in saying that
into re-entering negotiations on reviving the that there was no need for the negotiation and
2015 nuclear deal, on October 31 pledged that that the simplest solution would be for Biden to
if the US returned to the agreement, it would issue an executive order saying he was returning
only subsequently leave if Tehran clearly broke to the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions.
its terms. Amir-Abdollahian also said that Iran’s Raisi
Although Iran has said it will return to the administration, in power since August, was
talks on the deal, known as the JCPOA, by the moving to a balanced foreign policy; the impli-
end of November, major powers in the west have cation was that Iran was going to deprioritise
become increasingly anxious that the delay in relations with the west.
returning to the talks caused by Iran’s new hard- In what may have been a further attempt to
line presidency is a subterfuge; they worry that bring Iran back to the negotiating table, the US
Tehran has been using the lengthy postpone- E3 joint statement issued in Rome also contained
ment to build up its uranium stockpile, work no demand that Tehran as part of any agreement,
around UN nuclear inspections and increase its commit to follow-on negotiations about what
knowhow in the field of advanced centrifuges the west sees as its destabilising behaviour in the
that produce highly enriched uranium. Though region backing militant groups in various zones
Iran continues to insist it has no ambition to of conflict.
develop a nuclear weapon, western officials are The remaining signatories to the JCPOA
concerned that Iran’s “breakout” time for devel- are Iran, France, Germany, the UK, Russia and
oping such a weapon could decrease to the point China, though the accord by now is hardly
that the value of returning to the JCPOA would functioning.
be minimal. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russian ambassador to
Biden made his commitment, responding multilateral bodies in Vienna, where talks on the
to one of Iran’s negotiating priorities, in a joint future of the accord were paused in June to await
statement issued with Germany, France and the the result of the Iranian presidential election that
UK. It came after a meeting on the margins of put Ebrahim Raisi in office and allow the new
the G20 in Rome attended by Biden, Germany’s Iranian government to review its JCPOA pol-
Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and icy and negotiating strategy, welcomed Biden’s
Britain’s Boris Johnson. pledge.
Part of the statement read: “We welcome Biden noted that the US was still paying the
President Biden’s clearly demonstrated commit- price of bad choices made by the Trump admin-
ment to return the US to full compliance with the istration, including the decision to quit the
JCPOA and to stay in full compliance, so long as nuclear deal. But he reiterated that he and Euro-
Iran does the same.” pean leaders at the summit had agreed diplo-
However, such a pledge from Biden has lim- macy was the best way forward in handling Iran
ited worth because the JCPOA has never been over the future of the nuclear deal. He said: “We
endorsed by the US Senate and he may have lit- came together to reiterate our shared belief that
tle to no influence on the actions of future US diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from
administrations. After all, in May 2018 then US getting a nuclear weapon and discussed how best
president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled to encourage Iran to resume serious good faith
Washington out of the multilateral JCPOA even negotiations”.
though the UN was stating that Iran was in full US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on
compliance with its terms. Its terms are designed October 31 said that Washington was “absolutely
to ensure the Iranian nuclear development pro- in lock step” with Britain, Germany and France
gramme stays entirely civilian in return for a on getting Iran back into a functioning JCPOA,
shield against major economic sanctions being but he added that it was not clear if Tehran was
imposed on Iran. willing to rejoin the talks in a “meaningful way”.
Trump said the deal was not tight or tough “It really depends on whether Iran is serious
enough. Europe object to the Trump walkout about doing that [reviving the JCPOA],” Blinken
but in the years since has stopped short of offer- said. “All of our countries, working by the way
ing Iran meaningful assistance to protect its with Russia and China, believe strongly that that
economy from Trump’s swingeing sanctions, so would be the best path forward,” he added.
tough that Tehran described them as amounting “But we do not yet know whether Iran is will-
to an “economic war”. ing to come back to engage in a meaningful way,”
In an interview published at the weekend, Blinken said. “But if it isn’t, if it won’t, then we are
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdol- looking together at all of the options necessary to
lahian was quite dismissive of the US efforts to deal with this problem.”™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 03•November•2021