DOHUK, Iraq (CU)_Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has called on US President Joe Biden to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and to lift sanctions imposed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Referring to President Trump’s administration, Rouhani said “a tyrant’s era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign”, noting that the ball was “in the US court now”.
“If Washington returns to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, we will also fully respect our commitments under the pact,” he said during a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday (Jan 20).
President Joe Biden was a part of the Obama administration which negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was abandoned by Trump in 2018, who described it as “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made”.
Subsequently, in January last year, tensions between Washington and Tehran reached a new high, almost to a breaking point, after the United States assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
During the meeting on Wednesday, the Iranian President said President Trump’s administration “bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and causing problems for his own people and the world”.
Meanwhile, Biden has already expressed his desire to re-join the 2015 Agreement, noting that Trump had “recklessly tossed away” a deal that was working to keep America safe.
“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy,” the then-Presidential candidate wrote to CNN in September. “If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would re-join the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.”
The JCPOA was signed by Iran and six other nations in 2015, after two years of intensive negotiations orchestrated by the Obama administration. Under the deal, Tehran agreed to reduce the number of centrifuges in the country by two-thirds, as well as to slash its stockpile of enriched uranium, and to cap the ongoing enrichment at 3.67%, an amount which is sufficient for energy provision but not enough to build a nuclear bomb.
In return, the six other nations party to the deal agreed to lift all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, which reconnected the country’s economy with international markets. Although Trump abandoned the agreement a couple of years ago, the deal itself continues to exist between Iran and the remaining five nations, namely the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China.
However, this month, Iran announced that it had resumed enriching uranium to 20% purity, which puts the Middle Eastern nation just a step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Although this was seen as a move that could complicate the Biden administration’s plans to restart nuclear talks with Tehran, nevertheless, President Rouhani’s comments on Wednesday opens the door for improved diplomatic relations between the two nations.
