Trump's Decision to Withdraw From JCPOA ‘Great Strategic Blunder’: US Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US official escribed the Trump administration's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as one of the greatest strategic blunders in US foreign policy in recent years.
The Iran deal was reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 together with the European Union.
"This (Joe Biden) administration considers the decision on the part of the last administration to withdraw from the JCPOA, one of the greatest strategic blunders of American foreign policy in recent years," State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday.
The P5+1 include the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States -- plus Germany, which during the Barak Obama administration had entered into an agreement with Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran has already denounced the Biden administration’s paradoxical approach in the course of negotiations to revive the deal, reiterating that the window of opportunity for a deal is still open from the viewpoint of Iran.
“But unfortunately the US’ attitude is contradictory and paradoxical. Their stances are negative, while their behavior and messages, sent via intermediaries, are something else,” the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry told reporters in late December.
Iran also indicated multiple times that the American negotiators have not grasped any chance for talks to reach a conclusion, although a final deal is ready to be signed by the parties.
Since April 2021, several rounds of talks between Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA -Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia- have been held in the Austrian capital to bring the US back into the Iran deal.
The Vienna talks, however, exclude American diplomats due to their country’s withdrawal from the deal.
In quitting the agreement, Trump unleashed what he called the “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. Washington also reinstalled unilateral sanctions against Tehran, which had been lifted under the JCPOA. Tehran maintains that the policy has failed dismally.
Iran has cited Washington’s indecisiveness as the reason behind the protraction of the talks, as a number of key issues remain unresolved, ranging from the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions to the provision of guarantees by the American side that it will not leave the deal again.