TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of Iran’s delegation in the meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission on Wednesday in Vienna met and talked with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.
In the meeting which was held in a friendly climate, the bilateral relations between Iran and the European country were reviewed and the two sides emphasized the will of the two nations to deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields, and discussed other issues of mutual interest. They also discussed the latest round of talks in the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting in Vienna.
In this regard and while thanking the Austrian government for its efforts and hospitality and especially Austrian police proper reaction in wake of the MKO grouplet supporters’ gathering in front of the hotel hosting the JCPOA meeting, Araqchi explained Iran’s stance and stressed the need for the full lifting of the sanctions and the practical steps that the U.S. government must take to return to the JCPOA.
Schallenberg, for his part, stressed the readiness of the Austrian government to provide the necessary facilities and make every effort to create a suitable atmosphere for the holding of Iran-related talks in Vienna and described the JCPOA and its continuation as being in the interest of all parties (Westerns).
The Vienna meeting is being held in a condition that P4+1 countries have become content to mediate in the dispute between Iran and the U.S. and to draw up ways of protecting the JCPOA and ways of return of both countries to the JCPOA.
This point that the U.S. pullout from the JCPOA during Donald Trump’s presidency led to 80 percent failure of the JCPOA and lack of commitment of Europe and caused the trust to the sustainability regarding the obligations and promises of the West has completely been questioned, and Iran has repeatedly emphasized that the only way for the U.S. return to the JCPOA is its full commitment to its obligations and removing effectively all of the imposed, even the re-imposed sanctions or re-named sanctions and their verifications.
The result of the meeting still with drawing up plans covering two impacts has been put on the agenda of the two expert workgroups. Although the U.S. openly and explicitly announced that it is opposed to remove all sanctions and has put on the agenda some issues beyond the JCPOA and with these methods it shows that Biden Administration despite repeated claims of its intention to return to the JCPOA and diplomacy is not ready for any practical action in this field.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Permanent Representative of Russia to International Organizations in Vienna, in his tweet regarding this issue wrote, “Two expert-level groups (on sanctions lifting and nuclear issues) were tasked to identify concrete measures to be taken by Washington and Tehran to restore full implementation of JCPOA.” In one prediction, they will try first to restore to some extent the lost reputation of the West and secondly, they will try to find a way to save President Hassan Rouhani’s government from this current ludicrous condition which has wasted almost eight years of Iranian nation for almost no achievement of course through Western diplomacy and methods.
In contradiction to this approach, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, who had hidden in the backroom of the negotiations and moniting the pettiest detail of talks, criticized the raised topics by Iran and called it “too much” and added, “We do not expect any immediate breakthrough. We recognize this to be potentially the start of a process, knowing that we do have a long – a potentially long road ahead.” State Department’s Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley, heading the U.S. representative in the meeting in Vienna and monitoring the talks from the adjacent room, said after the meeting, “The U.S. has some concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programs and first we should put the current nuclear issue to the side, then the talks on Iran’s regional activities will start.”
This meeting is getting executive in a condition that Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has not taken part in it and it shows seemingly the Rouhani Government has sill retained an upper hand in facing with the West.
If we notice the reasons for holding the meeting, we reach this point that the Iran-China agreement has led to the full reason for the West’s fear of Iran’s getting rid of sanctions and its defiance to the JCPOA. Of course, the West is in a great dilemma both to compensate the maximum pressure on Iran and at the same time not to give any concession for the survival of the Islamic Republic establishment and it is seeking a solution wretchedly and perplexedly.
Some believe that the upcoming presidential election in Iran causes that the West helps its West-oriented favorite candidate to win, and for this reason it wants to take an effective action on the result of the election but this wish is much closer to delusion because eight years of the resistant Iranian nation’s policy of tolerating the armed to the teeth President Rouhani’s anti-public government has had only one result for the West and it has been distribution of poverty and destitution, and as the result distrust of around 90 percent of the public to its West-ward look.
So the Westerners with their intention of gradual toppling concealed in their velvet gloves are unlikely to change their policy in encountering Iran. Of course under the influence of Iran-China agreement, they will try first to find a way for destroying this relation and secondly offering some proposals in the level of lollypops for massive induction propagation for providing stuff for the pro-Westerners in Iran.
