TEHRAN -- Iran on Tuesday warned that it has its own plan B and that it will not wait forever for the United States to make necessary political decisions to help revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the United States has already walked away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and it is necessary to make sure that will not happen again.
His comments came in response to U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price who said on Monday that Washington was prepared to walk away from talks to revive the deal “if Iran displays an intransigence to making progress.”
Khatibzadeh warned that “blusters and bluffs” will not work and that decisions are needed to go forward in the negotiations in Vienna.
“US has already “walked away” from JCPOA. We must make sure it won’t happen again. Everyone has its own plan B, though US’ has proven hollow. Blusters & bluffs have/will not work. Decisions do,” Khatibzadeh tweeted. “A deal is at hand, if WH makes its mind. Iran is willing, but will not wait forever.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday that the Vienna talks on the removal of anti-Iran sanctions have not reached a conclusion yet and it is time for the United States to make its difficult decision.
The U.S. unilaterally left the 2015 agreement in 2018 and re-stored the sanctions that had been lifted under the accord. Washington’s European allies in the deal—France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—have been toeing the sanctions line closely by ending their trade activities with Iran.
The Vienna talks began last April between Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA on the assumption that the U.S., under the Joe Biden administration, is willing to repeal the so-called maximum pressure policy pursued by former president, Donald Trump, against Tehran.
Iran says it won’t settle for anything less than the removal of all U.S. sanctions in a verifiable manner. It also wants guarantees that Washington would not abandon the agreement again.