Rouhani: Biden’s Failure to Honor JCPOA Betrayal of US Voters
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reminded his American counterpart that any procrastination in implementing the 2015 nuclear deal will spell a betrayal of the US election pledges, since Biden had repeatedly hammered his predecessor for scrapping the JCPOA.
Speaking at a cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani said although US President Joe Biden had in his election campaign frequently slammed Donald Trump for the mistake of pulling Washington out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and admitted that the sanctions on Iran are futile, the new US administration has maintained Trump’s policy of crimes and economic terrorism against Iran.
If Biden procrastinates, even to a small extent, in carrying out the JCPOA, he will betray the votes of American people, the Iranian president added.
Highlighting his administration’s unwavering attempts to settle the problems under the economic war and the coronavirus-related troubles, Rouhani said the cabinet has made every effort over the past three years and a half to have the JCPOA implemented and the sanctions lifted.
The people of Iran should know that if the economic war on the country had not been waged by Trump and the coronavirus pandemic had not broken out, Iran’s economic growth rate without oil incomes would have stood at 4.1%, the inflation rate would have been 11.5%, the investment growth rate would have reached 4.7%, and the gross domestic product would have been 22% higher than what it is now, Rouhani stated.
He also reiterated that Iran has never been after weapons of mass destruction and its nuclear activities are completely peaceful. “The accusations (of pursuing nukes) against Iran are baseless and unreasonable, and the JCPOA is a document testifying that Iran is not after nuclear weapons.”
The US left the JCPOA in 2018 and restored the economic sanctions that the accord had lifted. Tehran retaliated with remedial nuclear measures that it is entitled to take under the JCPOA’s Paragraph 36.
Iran and the remaining JCPOA parties have launched talks in Vienna since April 6 to revive the agreement. The negotiations examine the potential of revitalization of the nuclear deal and the US’ likely return to it.