The remaining signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran deal, held a virtual meeting with Iran Wednesday to discuss the deteriorating state of the nuclear deal.
The meeting was intended to call upon Iran to return to compliance with the nuclear deal and to assess the current state of the deal, according to Maria Adebahr, German’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
Following President Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May 2018, Iran has continued to ramp up its nuclear activity in opposition to agreements within the JCPOA.
“In theory, the so-called ‘Iran deal’ was supposed to protect the United States and our allies from the lunacy of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a weapon that will only endanger the survival of the Iranian regime. In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and, over time, reach the brink of a nuclear breakout,” said President Trump in 2018.
Iran’s most recent JCPOA breach is its plan to add advanced centrifuges to the Natanz nuclear facility, an act that has been condemned by France, Britain, and Germany as “deeply worrying.”
Joe Biden has indicated that he will rejoin the JCPOA without any changes to the deal if Iran will agree to comply; however, Iran’s leadership has indicated a continuation of hostility between the U.S. and Iran despite a change in administration.
“Don’t trust the enemy. We saw what the U.S. did under Trump and under Obama against Iran. Hostilities aren’t particular to Trump for them to end with him going. Obama was also malicious to the Iranian nation. The 3 European countries have displayed utter malice and duplicity too,” tweeted Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President of the Islamic Republic Hassan Rouhani expressed that even if the U.S. agrees to comply, Iran will only honor its commitments to the deal if all the P4+1 signatories, made up of France, Germany, the UK, China, and Russia also return to the nuclear deal’s original commitments.
“It’s not just about the U.S. The P4+1 can return to all their commitments and we will do the same, said Rouhani.
Biden’s intention to return to the 2015 Iran deal directly opposes President Trump’s stance that Iran was merely using the billions of dollars freed up by the deal to fund “sinister activities.”
“A constructive deal could easily have been struck at the time, but it wasn’t. At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program,” said President Trump.
