US Return to JCPOA Should Not Couple with Preconditions for Iran: Russia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said the US return to the Iran nuclear deal should not be coupled with any preconditions under the new administration of Joe Biden.
Answering to a question about the potential timeframe of the US return to the Iran nuclear deal, during a televised interview with Rossiya’24 news channel on Wednesday, Ulyanov replied, "I’d say that we all urgently need that the first signs of normalization will appear in February, since under the law recently passed by Iran’s Majlis (parliament), unless progress is made, as early as on February 21 Tehran is to terminate the appliance of the Additional Protocol and the Safeguards Agreement it signed with the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency), and that will dramatically reduce the chances of inspecting the state of affairs in Iran’s nuclear program."
Ulyanov recalled that Iran would hold the presidential election in June.
Therefore, "the window of opportunity is very narrow," the Russian envoy to Vienna added.
Russia’s permanent envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said that the reinstatement of the United States’ participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) should not be coupled with any preconditions under the new administration of Joe Biden.
"(Antony) Blinken (Biden’s pick for Secretary of State ) himself told the Senate hearings that Iran will first rejoin (the JCPOA) and then the US will start the procedure of returning. This is not an option. Similarly, it is not an option (to put forward) preconditions from any side. Let’s hope it will somehow work out," he went on to say.
Former US president Donald Trump withdrew his country from the nuclear deal in 2018.
A year into Washington’s withdrawal and the ensuing European failure to protect its business ties with Iran, Tehran began suspending parts of its commitments under the JCPOA on a step by step basis in retaliation.
The Europeans, however, continued to fail to put their verbal support for the deal into action, ultimately prompting the Iranian Parliament to intervene in the case and vote for a law designed to protect Iran’s interests against the Western sanctions.
The law — named the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions — requires the administration to suspend even more contractual obligations if the European trio does not provide Iran with the sanctions relief it has been promised under the JCPOA in two months.
