Envoy Says U.S. Not Interested in Return to JCPOA

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The U.S. says Washington intends to focus on “Tehran’s arms deliveries to Russia” and riots in Iran instead of resuming talks on Washington’s return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“Iran is not interested in a deal and we’re focused on other things,” U.S. Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley claimed in an interview with Bloomberg.
“Right now we can make a difference in trying to deter and disrupt the provision of weapons to Russia and trying to support the fundamental aspirations of the Iranian people,” he added in mendacious remarks.
Iranian officials have rejected claims of Tehran’s arms shipment to Russia to be used in the ongoing war with Ukraine. They say such allegations are basically aimed at legitimizing the West’s military assistance to Kiev.
Malley said while the U.S. doubts Tehran’s interest in renewing the nuclear deal, ineraction between the EU and Iran continues and negotiations have not been formally suspended.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian has said the Americans are sending messages, stressing that they are “in hurry” to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, while “hypocritically” hoodwinking the Western media that the accord is not a priority for them currently.

The Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was an agreement signed in 2015 by Tehran with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China, during the presidency of Barack Obama. However, Obama’s successor Donald Trump abandoned the JCPOA in May 2018 and slapped cruel sanctions on Iran. Joe Biden had vowed to resume talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal and remove the sanctions. Two years into the presidency, Biden has failed to keep his promise and is now threatening to take military action.

The talks to salvage the agreement kicked off in the Austrian capital of Vienna in April last year, months after Biden succeeded Trump, with the intention of examining Washington’s seriousness in rejoining the deal and removing anti-Iran sanctions.

The negotiations remain stalled since August, as Washington continues to insist on its hard-nosed position of not removing all sanctions that were slapped on the Islamic Republic by the previous U.S. administration.

Iran has demanded that the United States provide assurances that it would not leave the JCPOA again before it could reenter the agreement. Washington has refused to give a legally enforceable guarantee, leaving Iranian negotiators suspicious of Washington’s seriousness in the negotiations.

kayhan.ir

Envoy Says U.S. Not Interested in Return to JCPOA