Joe Biden said during the campaign that he intends to offer Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy.”
Washington:
US President-elect Joe Biden will insist that Iran accept new demands if it wants the United States to return to a nuclear deal and lift sanctions, The New York Times said Wednesday.
The Times said the Biden administration will seek to extend the duration of “restrictions on Iran’s production of fissile material that could be used to make a (nuclear) bomb” in a new round of negotiations.
Iran would also have to address its regional “evil” activities through representatives in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen in talks that would have to include its Arab neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, the report said.
President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and has reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign against America’s archenemy.
Biden, who defeated Trump at the polls last month, said during the campaign that he intends to offer Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy.”
In the Times interview published Wednesday, the incoming US president defended those views, saying, “It’s going to be difficult, but yes.”
“Look, there’s a lot of talk about precision missiles and a whole host of other things that are destabilizing the region,” Biden said, as quoted as saying.
But, he added, “the best way to achieve some stability in the region” was to deal “with the nuclear program.”
Biden warned that if Iran were to acquire a bomb, it would spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, “and the last thing we need in that part of the world is a build-up of nuclear capability.”
“In consultation with our allies and partners, we will enter into negotiations and follow-up agreements to tighten and lengthen Iran’s nuclear limitations, as well as address the missile program,” he told the Times.
Biden was quoted as saying that the United States always had the option to counter international sanctions if necessary, and that Iran knew it.
The 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its nuclear program.
In response to Trump’s withdrawal, the Islamic Republic has retaliated by revoking its commitments to the deal.
Iran’s government has cautiously welcomed Biden’s victory, but conservatives have accused him of giving in to what they say is an “illusion” of change on the part of America’s “Great Satan”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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