Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister and top nuclear negotiator, has written an article, which was published by Financial Time on Sunday.
The Iranian official wrote in the opinion, “This week, Iran and five global powers gather in Vienna for so-called ‘nuclear negotiations’. This very term — which is used to refer to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement — is rife with error.”
Bagheri Kani wrote, “Western countries, in particular the US, work tirelessly to portray ‘negotiations’ as merely a process to restrict Iran’s legitimate and peaceful nuclear programme, which is enshrined in international treaties and watched by oversight organisations. From Iran’s perspective, however, ‘negotiations’ must pursue real objectives, observed by all parties.”
The Islamic Republic follows up two goals when it comes to negotiations: “The first is to gain a full, guaranteed and verifiable removal of the sanctions that have been imposed on the Iranian people. Without this, the process will continue indefinitely. ‘Negotiations’ without an airtight solution benefit no one.”
Previous efforts did not bear any fruit because the West wants to use any agreement as a basis to put more pressures on Iran, so such a dilemma forced the signatories to the JCPOA to come back to the negotiating table.
The new situation derives from former US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, which was a sort of misusing Iranians’ trust to other signatories to the accord.
Experiences show that the West is not seeking to implement any agreement, but they want to publicize a so-called deal to appease world public opinion and they would try to find a way to refuse abiding by the accord. Then, they want to misuse the JCPOA to force Iran to give more concessions concerning irrelevant issues.
“It would be naive to attribute these problems solely to the Trump administration and to his ‘maximum pressure campaign'”, while the US has always tried to deprive Iranians from their economic rights in return for restricting their nuclear activities.
Given the six years of experience especially on the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, Washington is needed to show it will comply with its commitments under the deal, he wrote.
“Iran did not succumb to the use of either military threats, economic sanctions or “maximum pressure” under Trump and it will not do so under Biden.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran “is ready to voluntarily fulfill its nuclear commitments in accordance with the agreement,” he wrote, adding that Iran is “prepared to react proportionately to any pressure and reciprocate any goodwill gesture.”