No Talks beyond JCPOA: Iranian Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani decried the US and the European troika for their failure to honor the 2015 nuclear deal, emphasizing that Tehran will not hold talks with them about anything beyond the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In a tweet on Wednesday, Shamkhani said the JCPOA has become an “empty shell” for Iran given its inability to keep sanctions away from the country.
“The US and Europe have failed the test of fulfilling their commitments in the JCPOA. Now, the JCPOA has turned into an empty shell for Iran in the economic and sanctions removal areas,” he said.
Shamkhani added that Iran will not engage in any negotiations with “oath-breaker America” and “idle Europe” beyond the JCPOA.
Washington left the JCPOA in 2018 and began to implement what it called the “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, depriving the country of the economic benefits of the accord, including the removal of sanctions, for which Iran had agreed to certain caps on its nuclear activities, Press TV reported.
In the meantime, the other parties to the deal, in particular France, Britain and Germany, only paid lip service to safeguarding Iran’s economic dividends as promised under the JCPOA, prompting Iran – after an entire year of “strategic patience” – to reduce its nuclear obligations in a legal move under the deal.
The Vienna talks began last April on the assumption that the US, under the Biden administration, is willing to repeal the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure policy.