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US President-elect Joe Biden confirmed to “The New York Times” that he intends to quickly begin new negotiations with Iran “in consultation” with Washington’s allies, but only after the United States returns to the nuclear deal. with Iran from which outgoing President Donald Trump retired.
In an interview Tuesday night with the author of a US newspaper article published Wednesday, Biden confirmed the position he announced before the November 3 presidential election. In September, Biden wrote in an article that if Tehran “once again respects” the restrictions placed on its nuclear program in the international agreement concluded in 2015, Washington, in turn, will return to the agreement as a “starting point” for the “follow-up” negotiations.
“It will be difficult, but yes,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question about whether he was still in office. He added that “the best way to achieve some kind of stability in the region” is to pay attention to the Iranian “nuclear program.” He made it clear that if Tehran acquired the nuclear bomb, there would be a race for nuclear weapons in the Middle East, which is “the last thing we need in this part of the world.”
Returning to the agreement would mean lifting the strict sanctions imposed by Trump since he withdrew from the agreement in 2018. In response to these sanctions, Iran gradually withdrew its nuclear promises.
Biden announced that only after Washington and Iran return to the agreement, “in consultation with our allies and partners, will we launch follow-up negotiations and agreements to tighten and extend nuclear restrictions imposed on Iran and address Iran’s missile programs.”
The US newspaper published that the new administration will seek during these negotiations to extend the period of restrictions on the production of fissile material from Tehran, which can be used to build a nuclear bomb, and to address the activities of Tehran and its allies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria. and Yemen.
He said Biden wants to expand the talks to include countries that did not sign the 2015 deal – the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Iran – including neighboring Tehran countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The US network “CNN” quoted a US administration official as saying that Israel was behind the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, but declined to reveal details on whether the Trump administration had prior knowledge of the operation.
The source, whose identity was not revealed by the network, said that Israel usually informs the US administration of information about its objectives and the operations it intends to carry out before its implementation. But it declined to confirm whether the Israeli government had done so this time, despite claiming that Fakhrizadeh had long been one of Israel’s targets.
Iranian officials accused Israel of being involved in Fakhrizadeh’s assassination, and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that the Iranian response to the assassination would be harsh and that the guilty finger was pointing at Israel.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also said that there are efforts between the United States and Israel to increase tension in the region before the end of President Trump’s term.
Iran
In Tehran, the Guardian Council, which oversees the work of the Iranian Shura Council, passed a bill to increase uranium enrichment, which was recently adopted in light of the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhdaei told reporters that the law on “strategic measures to lift sanctions”, which was urgently adopted by parliament, “is not considered contrary to Sharia and the constitution,” and therefore both was approved by the Council.
The law, which was supposedly aimed at abolishing sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran, will go into effect.
However, during the cabinet meeting, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani rejected the Shura Council bill.
The European Union
In addition, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that the bloc is preparing for a meeting of the ministers of the states party to the agreement on the Iranian nuclear file “before Christmas”, after a phone call with Zarif.
Borrell said during a press conference in Brussels: “I spoke by phone with Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and I will call a ministerial meeting (of the states parties) before Christmas to reactivate this agreement.”
“This agreement is the only way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power,” he stressed.
The meeting of the Joint Commission on the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” is scheduled for December 16 in Vienna. Borrell’s departments clarified that “it will bring together the representatives of the European Troika plus two (France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia) and will be headed by Helga Maria Schmidt, secretary general of the European Department of Foreign Affairs.”
The sources indicated that “the participants will discuss the work in progress to maintain the joint comprehensive work plan and how to guarantee the full and effective implementation of the agreement by all parties.”
Borrell did not specify the date or place of the ministerial meeting.
