UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly that the United States would return to the Iranian nuclear deal in “full” if Tehran does the same.
He said the United States was “working” with China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany to “engage Iran diplomatically and to seek a return to” the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which America left in 2018.
“We’re prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iran’s new president Ebrahim Raisi voiced support for renewed nuclear negotiations in his international debut even as he called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under the 2015 nuclear accord.
“The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions,” Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN General Assembly.
He repeated the clerical state’s stance that nuclear weapons are religiously prohibited, a position that has been met with skepticism notably by Israel, which has carried out a sabotage campaign to delay Iran’s nuclear work.
Nuclear weapons “have no place in our defense doctrine and deterrence policy,” Raisi said.
But months of indirect negotiations brokered by the European Union since Biden’s election have failed to revive the accord fully.
Iran has taken steps away from the accord to protest the sanctions and insists on a full lifting of economic pressure — while the Biden administration says it is only looking at sanctions imposed over its nuclear program, not those that were based on other concerns including human rights.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Said Khatibzadeh, traveling with Raisi, said that he expected a resumption of the indirect talks in Vienna which include the nations still in the agreement — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
“The Vienna talks will resume soon, in the coming weeks,” he said, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency. — NNN-AGENCIES
