TEHRAN -- Iran’s top security official said Wednesday the United States and its European allies have turned the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), into an “empty shell”.
“The U.S. 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,” Ali Shamkhani tweeted.
“There will be no negotiations beyond the JCPOA with a non-compliant America and a passive Europe,” he added.
Iran and the remaining signatories of the JCPOA are currently in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal that former-U.S. President Donald Trump left in 2018 by imposing the most draconian sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday during a call with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that “a lack of serious will on the part of the West to reach a good and credible agreement in Vienna has led to unnecessary prolongation of the talks”.
The Vienna talks began last April on the assumption that the U.S., under the Biden administration, was willing to under its predecessor’s wrongs.
However, President Joe Biden has appeared intent on keeping the key elements of the sanctions as a pressure tool against Iran.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, Amir-Abdollahian called for a “political statement” by the U.S. Congress to affirm its commitment to a possible agreement in Vienna.
Washington, he said, has failed to address Iran’s demand for guarantees that no party is able to abandon the deal, as the U.S. did under former president Donald Trump in 2018. Tehran also wants all sanctions imposed by Trump to be removed.

“As a matter of principle, public opinion in Iran cannot accept as a guarantee the words of a head of state, let alone the United States, due to the withdrawal of Americans from the JCPOA,” Amir-Abdollahian said.
The Americans claim it is virtually impossible for the Biden administration to provide the legal assurances Tehran demands. But Amir-Abdollahian said he had told Iran’s negotiators to propose to Western parties that “at least their parliaments or parliament speakers, including the U.S. Congress, can declare in the form of a political statement their commitment to the agreement and return to the JCPOA implementation”.
Biden has said the U.S. would return to the deal if Iran agreed to reverse the countermeasures it had taken over the past three years in response to the U.S. withdrawal and the Europeans’ failure to protect Tehran from the sanctions.
Amir-Abdollahian said: “Iran’s commitments are as clear as a mathematical formula. It is absolutely clear what we are supposed to do and how these measures will be verified through the IAEA. Therefore the other side can have no concern; but we remain concerned primarily about the guarantees” that the U.S. would not withdraw.
Expressing Tehran’s frustrations with Washington’s position as weeks of talks in Vienna appear at risk of stalling, Amir-Abdollahian said: “We are facing problems during this period because the other party lacks a serious initiative.”
The other crucial issue for Iran is the scale of sanctions relief any agreement would provide. Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran wanted the negotiations to lead to the “total lifting” of sanctions. The challenge, however, was that the Biden administration was only willing to remove the economic sanctions authorized by Trump, he said.
“This is not all we are looking for. That Trump unilaterally and unjustly imposed sanctions on real and legal entities in Iran under some allegations as Iran’s missile program, regional issues or human rights is not acceptable,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “This is also one of the challenges which remains on the negotiating table in Vienna.”
He said U.S. officials had sent “many messages” to have direct talks with Iran, but ruled out any such move. “Our last response to Americans and intermediaries was: any direct dialogue, contact and negotiation with the U.S. would have very huge costs for my government,” the foreign minister said. “We are not ready to enter into the process of direct talks with the U.S. if we do not have a clear and promising outlook to reach a good agreement with sustainable guarantees in front of us.”
He added that Tehran had indicated to the U.S. that if Washington’s “intentions are genuine, you should take some practical and tangible steps on the ground before any direct talks and contacts can take place”. This could include unfreezing billions of dollars of Iranian petrodollars stuck in foreign central banks because of Trump’s sanctions or a presidential executive order to lift some of the sanctions, he said.
Despite all the odds, Amir-Abdollahian said that in “general, we are optimistic”. “We also welcome a good deal in the shortest time however this deal must uphold the rights of the Iranian people,” he said.