Joe Biden, the projected US president-elect, confirmed to the New YorkTimes his intention to return the United States to the Iran nuclear deallink during his tenure and holdfollow-up negotiations if Tehran returns to strict compliance with theagreement.
“It’s going to be hard, but yeah,” Biden told the newspaper when askedwhether he stood by his views on the Iran nuclear deallink.
According to Biden, if Iran acquires a nuclear bomb, it will put enormouspressure on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and other states to get nuclearweapons themselves.
“And the last goddamn thing we need in that part of the world is a buildupof nuclear capability … in consultation with our allies and partners,we’re going to engage in negotiations and follow-on agreements to tightenand lengthen Iran’s nuclear constraints, as well as address the missileprogram,” the politician said.
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During his presidential campaign, Biden said he would rejoin the deal —abandoned by President Donald Trump’s administration — “as a starting pointfor follow-on negotiations” if Tehran gave up the nuclear stockpile it hasamassed in violation of the agreement and return to full compliance.
Iran, on the other hand, said the US must first return to its internationalcommitments before further discussions. Biden also expressed a readiness tolift the sanctions that Trump imposed on Iran.
In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) withthe United States, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom.It required that Iran scale back its nuclear program and severely downgradeits uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including liftingthe arms embargo five years after the deal’s adoption.
The deal was dubbed one of the biggest diplomatic achievements of former USPresident Barack Obama’s administration, of which Biden was vice president.In 2018, Trump abandoned the landmark deal and implemented hard-linepolicies against Tehran. Since Trump’s decision to leave the JCPOA,tensions between the US and Iran have escalated, with Iran announcing thatit would no longer follow the 2015 nuclear deallink.