Russia Slams West's Purported Use of Iranian Drone Deliveries to Halt JCPOA Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A top Russian diplomat has slammed the West for exploiting the allegations of Iranian drone deliveries to Russia as a "clumsy excuse" to put the Vienna discussions on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal on hold, if not killing off entirely.
The “Alleged supplies of drones is a clumsy excuse for freezing (if not killing) the ViennaTalks on the JCPOA. Looks like the US + E3 have a temptation to move to “Plan B,” Mikhail Ulyanov stated in a tweet on Friday.
Ulyanov described the legislation as a huge blunder, adding, “It’s difficult to expect that such a plan can be a credible option. More likely just a non-starter.”
The remarks come as negotiations, which started in April last year in Vienna, remain stalled since August as Washington refuses to remove sanctions that were slapped on the Islamic Republic by the previous US administration of Donald Trump.
This is while after taking office, the Biden administration had criticized his predecessor's decision to scrap the deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and vowed to reverse the measure.
On the contrary, the Biden administration officials have upped the so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran and on several occasions announced that the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal are no longer their main focus.
Observers believe Washington is trying to use these baseless accusations against Iran to gain leverage in talks and negotiate from a position of strength.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 group, which includes Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Germany, was signed in 2015, but the US withdrew from the agreement on May 18, 2018, re-imposing harsher sanctions on Iran.
The majority of the parties involved in the JCPOA negotiations want the talks to conclude as soon as possible, but obtaining a final agreement is contingent on US political decisions on several key issues.
The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that if the US behaves realistically to fulfill the Iranian nation's reasonable requests, the agreement will be accessible. The Western sides in the discussions have no authority of their own and are entirely servile to the very US that trashed the international JCPOA.