Iran’s President Rejects Call For Changes to Nuclear Deal

 

Rouhani said no new countries will be added to the JCPOA

Dave DeCamp 

Posted onFebruary 3, 2021CategoriesNewsTagsIran

On Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ruled out any changes to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. He also rejected calls to include other countries in the deal.

“No clause of the JCPOA will change. Know this. And no one will be added to the JCPOA,” Rouhani said. French President Emmanuel Macron recently called for new “strict” nuclear talks with Iran and said Saudi Arabia should be involved.

Iranian officials have been clear that they want the original deal that was negotiated in 2015 and violated by the US in 2018. “This is the agreement. If they want it, everyone comes into compliance. If they don’t, they can go live their lives,” Rouhani said.

So far, the Biden administration does not seem to be in a hurry to revive the JCPOA and give Iran sanctions relief. The administration is demanding that Iran return to commitments it agreed to when the JCPOA was negotiated, while Iran is calling on President Biden to act first since the US is the party that violated the deal.

Offering a way out of the impasse, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Monday that the EU could oversee and coordinate the actions necessary for the US and Iran to return to the JCPOA. But the US dismissed the idea.

When asked about Zarif’s offer, State Department spokesman Ned Price said there are “many steps” the US has to take before engaging “directly with Iran” and before the US is willing to “entertain any sort of proposal.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2021/02/03/irans-president-rejects-call-for-changes-to-nuclear-deal/