Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesperson of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said on Sunday, March 23 that his country is ready to resume its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) if other parties to the deal respect its rights.
The deal signed between Iran and six other countries (five permanent members of the UN+Germany) lifted all international sanctions on Iran in return for its adherence to certain restrictions on its nuclear program.
US sabotaged JCPOA deal
The deal was derailed after the US, one of the signatories of the JCPOA, unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and imposed sanctions against Iran. It retaliated by scaling back its commitments under the deal. It has maintained that its actions were within the provisions of the deal and justified since other signatories failed to prevent the US from violating treaty provisions.
Kamalvandi was speaking during an interview conducted by the public diplomacy and information center of the AEOI, Press TV reported.
Kamalvandi asserted that Iran waited for a full year after the US exit from the deal before carrying out retaliatory measures which it had the right to initiate as per the provisions of the JCPOA.
The US has claimed the sanctions on Iran were to pressure it to negotiate the JCPOA to include other aspects of its foreign and defense policies. It has been reported that the primary objective behind the US push for JCPOA renegotiation is to safeguard Israeli interests in the region.
Iran has rejected the pressure and claimed that as a sovereign country it has the right to follow whatever foreign policy it wants.
“We hope western countries, who have tested Iran many times, have now realized that pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran is not effective and may even have the opposite effect,” Kamalvandi said.
Iran’s nuclear program is transparent and peaceful
Iran has, however, continued its negotiations with all other signatories of the JCPOA, in its attempt to revive the deal. It has maintained that if sanctions are lifted it may fully revert back to all its commitments under the deal.
Kamalvandi also rejected that Iran’s nuclear program has any military intention, claiming that his country’s nuclear program has gone through the harshest nuclear inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which has established, time and again, that Iran’s nuclear program is transparent and peaceful.
No direct talks under US “maximum pressure” campaign
On ruling out direct talks with the US, Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi reiterated on Sunday that his country has decided to do so given the peculiar circumstances at the moment.
“In circumstances where there is a ‘maximum pressure,’ no one in their sound mind would enter into direct talks” with the US, Araghchi was quoted saying by IRNA.
After withdrawing from the JCPOA during his first presidential term in 2018 Donald Trump also announced a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran with the objective of bringing its oil exports to zero to force it to renegotiate the JCPOA. Trump revived the campaign in February claiming his predecessor Joe Biden failed to keep up the pressure on Iran during his presidency.
Along with reviving his maximum pressure campaign, Trump also expressed his desire to engage Iran diplomatically, writing a letter inviting it for talks over the deal earlier this month. In the letter, Trump apparently gave a two-month ultimatum to finalize the revival of the JCPOA, threatening possible military actions otherwise.
Iran has called the US offer to talk “deceptive” and rejected it, asserting that no amount of threats can force it into a deal. Iran has also emphasized that it does not believe in talking to the US under the Trump administration because there is no guarantee it will adhere to the outcome of such negotiations.
