TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign
Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian says the remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), should prepare themselves for negotiations over the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic on the basis of mutual interests, emphasizing that the talks must be accompanied by concrete results.
“The White House calls for negotiations with Iran and claims to be ready to return to the JCPOA. Yet it simultaneously imposes new sanctions on Iranian individuals & entities. We are closely examining Mr. Joe Biden’s behavior,” he wrote in a series of posts published on his Twitter on Tuesday.
Amir-Abdollahian added, “The purpose of negotiations is not talking for the sake of talking, but to achieve tangible results on the basis of respect for mutual interests. The P4+1 should be ready for negotiations based on mutual interests & rights.”
The remarks came only a day after the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Tehran was waiting for the United States to adopt practical measures to remove its sanctions and return to its commitments under the JCPOA, stating that the Islamic Republic has already had enough of empty words made by Washington.
“It is natural for Tehran not to think of dialogue with Washington in any format until realities on the ground change,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a weekly press conference on Monday.
Khatibzadeh stressed that the negotiations in Austria’s capital, Vienna, are intended to ensure a “definite, committed and practical return of the United States to its obligations” under the JCPOA.
The Iranian diplomat went on to dismiss the U.S.’s claim of its readiness to return to the negotiations in order to reach an outcome, stating that Washington’s plan and actions have so far failed to prove such a claim.
“We have already had enough of empty words. We have been waiting for an action that has been delayed for months,” he said.
‘U.S. President Has to Prove His Signature Means Something’
Khatibzadeh responded to a tweet by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, in which the latter had asserted that any future Republican president would again “tear up” the 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.
“The world is acutely aware of what Mr. Cruz confesses: that regimes in Washington are rogue,” Khatibzadeh tweeted.
Earlier, the Texan senator had tweeted that “it is a 100% certainty that any future Republican president will tear it (the agreement) up.”
The United States left the deal in 2018 under Republican president Donald Trump.
Formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deal had lifted the US’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic in return for some voluntary changes in Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Trump also returned the coercive economic measures after bringing about Washington’s departure from the JCPOA.
Therefore, Khatibzadeh added—despite the clear likelihood that any future Republican president could again suspend Washington’s commitment to the JCPOA—”onus is on POTUS (president of the United States) to convince international community—including all JCPOA participants—that his signature means something.”