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Two-Thirds of Middle East Experts Want Biden to Return to Iran Deal Without Conditions: Poll

reporter 1222 — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 08:03:23 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Joe Biden should return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as it exists before opening up negotiations on any other issues with that nation, according to a new survey of experts on the Middle East.

The Middle East Scholar Barometer found that 67 percent of respondents said the foreign policy strategy that was most likely to produce “favorable results” for the U.S. would be Biden returning “immediately” to the current Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) before negotiating any other conditions with Iran. Also in the survey, released Tuesday, 75 percent of experts said the U.S. returning to the deal would reduce the likelihood of Iran getting a nuclear weapon within the next decade.

“That was an overwhelming response,” Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar and the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland told Newsweek. Telhami developed the survey, which focused on two essential questions about what the U.S. should do regarding its relationship with Iran.

“If you reopen the deal, there are two issues that are problematic,” said Telhami, who also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. A first is that the U.S. would need to unilaterally negotiate the agreement with allies who are already vested in the deal, including some of America’s closet European partners.

The second issue concerns the “fear” that ever reaching a deal again would become impossible, said Telhami. He added that postponing the negotiation process opens up the possibility of “military escalation,” of which the academic community is largely opposed. Only 1 percent of those surveyed supported military action against Iran.

The survey was conducted from February 8 to 15 as a joint project between the University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll, which Telhami directs, and the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University. A non-random sample of 521 experts participated, providing perspective on how their opinions on current approaches to the Middle East policy compare.

All experts were members of either the Middle East Studies Association or the Middle East and North Africa section of the American Political Science Association, two of the leading academic groups on the study of the Middle East.

Rejoining the JCPOA also means lifting sanctions on Iran. Former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran under his maximum pressure campaign. These included secondary sanctions on global companies that do business with Iran, Telhami noted.

Only 4 percent of the respondents were in favor of continuing the maximum pressure strategy, which Telhami said harmfully affects the people of Iran more than the country’s nuclear program.

Iranian leaders have proudly declared Trump’s failure to create an alternative deal as a victory. Iran resumed enriching uranium in January, a direct violation of the JCPOA’s terms.

Biden said during his campaign he intended to rejoin the JCPOA, but he said he wouldn’t lift sanctions and enter back into the agreement until Iran stops its enrichment practices.

“No,” was Biden’s one-syllable answer when asked on CBS Evening News earlier this month whether the U.S. would lift sanctions first in order to pull Iran back to the negotiation table on the JCPOA. Biden confirmed in the interview that Iran would need to first stop enriching uranium before the U.S. would consider talks on the deal.

“You’re running against a clock,” Telhami said. He added that it’s difficult to tell if Iran has enough enriched uranium to develop a nuclear weapon, so time is of the essence for Biden to reach an agreement.

But the prolonged standoff between the Washington and Tehran has only pushed China and Russia closer to Iran, which is currently seeking global allies to relieve its crumbling economic and humanitarian conditions. China and Russia, who have agreed to the JCPOA, have asked Biden to rejoin the deal without demanding conditions.

Telahmi said it’s not yet clear whether Biden will seek additional conditions before re-entering the agreement: “While he has said he would return to the deal as it stands, there’s been some language that suggested that some negotiations may be in order.”

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Biden national security adviser suggests fast timeline to rejoin Iran deal

reporter 1222 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 14:12:01 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Biden is eyeing an urgent restoration of the international nuclear deal with Iran as a first step to deal with a range of threats from that country, new national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday, suggesting a faster timeline than the administration has previously outlined.

Sullivan did not mention Biden’s oft-stated precondition that Iran makes the first move by rolling back nuclear activities to come back into compliance with terms of the 2015 deal. Iran is closer to building a bomb now than it was when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, and putting the nuclear program “in a box” is the first imperative, Sullivan said.

“We are going to have to address Iran’s other bad behavior, malign behavior across the region, but from our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” Sullivan said. “And we would like to make sure that we reestablish some of the parameters and constraints around the program that have fallen away over the course of the past two years.”

Containing Iran’s ability to produce bombmaking nuclear material was the central rationale the Obama administration applied in seeking the deal that Sullivan helped to shape.

The timing of a U.S. return to the deal, as well as new concessions or promises made to Iran and the scope of a potential follow-on agreement, is one of the first major foreign policy tests for the Biden administration.

Sullivan did not spell out a preferred timeline, and the issue is now being debated among White House and State Department advisers. But Sullivan’s emphasis on a pressing need to contain Iran suggests he may push for an accelerated response.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has adopted a skeptical tone about any fast action, saying on his first full day in office Wednesday that a U.S. return to the deal is still far off.

“Iran is out of compliance on several fronts. And it would take some time, should it decide to do so, for it to come back into compliance and time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations,” Blinken said during a news conference at the State Department. “We’re not there yet, to say the least.”

As a 2020 presidential candidate, Biden committed to returning to the international compact that Trump had run in 2016 on reversing. After Trump pulled the United States out in 2018, Iran began breaking its obligations under the agreement.

Biden set the condition that Iran would have to return to complying with the agreement first, and said a restored deal would then be a starting point for negotiation of a larger agreement that addresses long-standing concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile capability, its support for terrorism, and aggressions toward Israel and the Persian Gulf neighbors.

Sullivan mentioned those concerns in remarks to the United States Institute of Peace and said the threats have only gotten worse because of Trump’s decision.

“Our view is that if we can get back to diplomacy and can put Iran’s nuclear program in a box, that will create a platform upon which to build a global effort, including partners and allies in the region and Europe and elsewhere, to take on the other significant threats Iran poses, including on the ballistic missile issue,” Sullivan said.

With key decisions about the pace and scope of U.S. outreach on hold, the administration on Friday named former Obama administration Middle East adviser and veteran diplomat Robert Malley to be a special envoy on Iran.

Conservatives including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized the pick before it was announced, calling Malley too soft on Tehran. Other opponents of the 2015 deal said Malley has been too critical of Israel, whose leaders opposed the deal reached when Biden was vice president.

“As the President and Secretary Blinken have said, if Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States would do the same and then use that as a platform to build a longer and stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Friday.

The 2015 deal is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“But we are a long way from that point as Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts, and there are many steps in the process that we will need to evaluate,” Price said, promising coordination with allies and with Congress, where skepticism about a return to the deal is widespread.

Malley will lead a team of “clear-eyed experts with a diversity of views,” as the new administration decides what to do, Price said.

Iran has said the United States must make the first move.

Iran’s parliament has tried to raise pressure on the new administration, threatening to suspend some U.N. nuclear inspections unless the United States lifts sanctions by Feb. 21.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to Blinken’s remarks with a tweet in English.

“Reality check for @SecBlinken: The US violated (the) JCPOA,” Zarif tweeted.

Sullivan spoke during an event that also featured his predecessor, Trump national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien. Sullivan and O’Brien agreed on other major priorities, including confronting China and Russia and extending Trump’s effort to forge diplomatic and economic agreements between Israel and Arab neighbors.

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UNSC, JCPOA Members Opposing US, President Says

reporter 1222 — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 09:23:40 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The US will definitely suffer another defeat in its desperate attempt to use a mechanism of the 2015 nuclear deal to reinstate the UN sanctions on Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said, noting that the UNSC and the JCPOA members are opposed to Washington’s bid.

Speaking at a Wednesday session of the cabinet, Rouhani said the JCPOA Joint Commission announced explicitly at a Tuesday meeting in Vienna that the US has no right to abuse the JCPOA, from which it withdrew in 2018.

The rotating president of the UN Security Council has also supported Iran against the US’ bid to re-impose the sanctions, the president added, referring to a recent telephone conversation with his Nigerien counterpart.

Despite this global opposition, the US has launched the “futile and childish” initiative to resort to the JCPOA snapback mechanism, Rouhani said. “The US will certainly suffer another defeat at this stage, and the claims that they make are completely unfounded and baseless.”

Highlighting the US’ humiliating defeat at the UN Security Council after its proposed resolution on the extension of an arms embargo on Iran was rejected, the president said anybody familiar with the basics of politics is aware that no party is allowed to resort to an agreement after withdrawal from it.

Last month, 13 countries of the 15-member council rejected the US push to trigger the so-called snapback provision in the 2015 nuclear deal, leaving Washington once again isolated on the issue like never before.

UNSC Resolution 2231, which enshrined the JCPOA, states that if no council member has put forward a draft resolution to extend sanctions relief on Iran within 10 days of a non-compliance complaint, then the body’s president shall do so within the remaining 20 days.

The document, however, says the Security Council would “take into account the views of the states involved.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that all UN sanctions against Iran will be reinstated on September 20 after the US “activated the snapback mechanism.”

However, the claim was strongly condemned by other signatories of the nuclear deal including the EU, Russia and China.

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IAEA Chief: Cooperation with Iran Must Continue

reporter 1222 — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 03:53:10 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi in a message referred to his Tuesday meeting with visiting Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran for Political Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi in Vienna, saying cooperation between Iran and the IAEA must continue.

“Good to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran @araghchi after my visit to Tehran. Our work must continue,” Grossi wrote in his Twitter account on Tuesday.

Araqchi arrived in Vienna on Monday to attend the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting which will was held today, IRNA reported.

Iran and the IAEA released a joint statement on August 26 in which they stressed agreement to further reinforce their cooperation and enhance mutual trust to facilitate the full implementation of Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement (CSA) and the Additional Protocol (AP) thereto, which is provisionally applied by Iran since 16 January 2016.

Based on the statement, the IAEA will continue to take into consideration Iran’s security concerns, by protecting all safeguards confidential information in accordance with the IAEA Statute, the relevant provisions of the CSA and the AP, and the established IAEA confidentiality regime, standards and procedures.

Grossi’s recent visit to Tehran was faced with Western pre-meditated media hype in the aftermath of the US defeated approach with the UN Security Council on the so-called snapback of the UN sanctions on Iran.

Earlier on Tuesday, Secretary-General of the European External Action Service Helga Schmid in a tweeted message hailed the unity of participants of a Joint Commission meeting of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which was held in Vienna.

“Just finished chairing #JCPOA Joint Commission,” Schmid wrote on her Twitter account adding, “Important to see that participants are united in resolve to preserve the #IranDeal and find a way to ensure full implementation of the agreement despite current challenges.”

The meeting was held at the level of deputy foreign ministers and directors general of foreign ministries of the JCPOA participant states. Iran was represented by Araqchi.

Araqchi has earlier said that the meeting of JCPOA Joint Commission was significant regarding to the US attempts to restore UN sanctions to annihilate the JCPOA.

Referring to the fact that the UNSC members have opposed the US draft resolution to invoke snapback clause of the JCPOA, Araqchi said the US attempts will definitely be an important discussion in the meeting.

The US has illegally called for the reinstatement of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday that Washington will return all UN sanctions against Iran “at midnight Sep. 1,” a claim which was strongly condemned by other signatories of the nuclear deal including the EU, Russia and China and was mocked by Iranian senior officials.

Zarif reacted to US claims on returning unilateral sanctions against Iran by saying in a tweeted message, “Obviously they don’t understand law or UN. Maybe they can grasp this: You divorced the JCPOA in 2018. Your name on the marriage certificate is irrelevant.”

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EU: JCPOA Joint Commission to Be Held on September

reporter 1222 — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 09:22:02 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will take place in Vienna on September 1, the European Union said.

The Joint Commission will be chaired on behalf of EU High Representative Josep Borrell by EEAS Secretary General Helga Maria Schmid, according to a statement by the EU on Saturday.

The meeting will be attended by representatives of Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany, Russia, and the UK.

As part of an illegal push, the United States is trying to invoke the snapback mechanism in the JCPOA despite its withdrawal in May 2018 in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorses the nuclear deal.

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Hillary Clinton Says US Has Interest to Return to JCPOA

reporter 1222 — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 04:07:17 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton criticized the administration of President Donald Trump for abandoning the 2015 Iran nuclear deal aka JCPOA, saying it is in America’s interest to return to the multinational agreement.

During an Atlantic Council FrontPage event broadcast on Monday, Clinton gave her views on how the next US administration should move forward with several domestic and international issues, among them the Iran policy.

Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state under ex-president Barack Obama, said the Trump administration could have tried to fix what it viewed as problems with the deal instead of abruptly pulling the US out of the JCPOA in May 2018, Press TV wrote.

One consequence of Washington’s withdrawal from the Obama-era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was that Iran and China strengthened their relations, she claimed.

The politician highlighted a 25-year partnership agreement that Iran and China are working to finalize and said, “I put that directly at the door of the Trump administration – that pulled the United States out of the Iran agreement that I began the negotiations for as secretary of state, and my successor John Kerry was able to bring to a very important conclusion.”

“I think it would be in the United States’ interest to rejoin the Iran agreement, just as it would be to rejoin the climate agreement,” which was similarly abandoned by Washington under Trump.

She, however, cast doubt on whether Iran would be “receptive to that,” saying, “I think they may have moved on.”

Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, has increasingly signaled that he wants to renegotiate the international agreement with Iran.

Earlier in May, Anthony Blinken, one of Biden’s top advisers, acknowledged that the United States would have to rejoin the original deal before asking for a new one.

After pulling out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Trump has been running what he refers to as a “maximum pressure” campaign, which has been seeking, in vain, to pressure Iran into negotiating a new deal that addresses its ballistic missile program and regional influence.

The Trump administration has also been attempting to fully kill the agreement, recently through a fruitless resolution to secure an extension of a UN arms embargo on Iran.

Iran has repeatedly said it will not renegotiate the JCPOA, calling on the US to abandon its unilateral pressure policy and return to its commitments under the agreement.

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Putin Urges Online Summit of Iran, US, Remaining Parties of JCPOA

reporter 1222 — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 08:16:25 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed an online summit between Iran, the US, and the remaining parties to the JCPOA to avoid further “confrontation and escalation” at the United Nations between Washington and Tehran.

“The issue is urgent,” Putin said in a statement on Friday, adding that the alternative was “only further escalation of tensions, increasing risk of conflict – such a scenario must be avoided”.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he is open to taking part in the seven-way online summit proposed by his Russian counterpart over the Iran arms embargo and JCPOA.

“We confirm our availability in principle,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement. “We have already taken initiatives in the same spirit in the past.”

The 15-member UN Security Council on Friday voted against a US-drafted resolution to extend an arms ban on Iran.

The proposal by Putin came amid Washington’s attempts to extend the resolution. The United States suffered an embarrassing diplomatic defeat when the UNSC rejected the bid

The US has become increasingly isolated over Iran at the Security Council since President Donald Trump pulled it out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in May 2018.

Washington was not expected to receive nine votes in favor, removing the need for Russia and China to wield their vetoes which they had indicated they were prepared to do.

The embargo on conventional arms is due to expire on October 18 under the terms of a resolution that blessed the Iran nuclear deal, signed in July 2015, and officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The United States has threatened to try to force a return of UN sanctions if it is not extended by using a controversial technique called “snapback.”

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Araghchi: Nuclear deal still alive

reporter 1222 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 14:02:22 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal are willing to preserve it, reiterating that the pact is “still alive”.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 15th meeting of the joint commission held for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Wednesday, Araghchi referred to the willingness of the European sides to keep the deal, reiterating that “JCPOA is still alive.”

The Iranian diplomat said there is a difference of opinion among the Europeans over triggering a dispute mechanism to the 2015 deal, however, noting that today’s meeting did not pertain to the issue.

The joint commission meeting was held at the level of deputy foreign ministers and director generals of P4+1, with the representatives of EU, Germany, France, Russia, China, the UK, and Iran in attendance.

The joint commission meeting was co-chaired by Araghchi and European External Action Service Secretary General Helga Schmid.

Schmid wrote on her Twitter account on Tuesday, “In Vienna to prepare first JCPOA Joint Commission of 2020, to continue to oversee the implementation of the agreement.”

She added, “We have a collective responsibility to preserve the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal.”

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Ulyanov: Joint Commission Participants reaffirm commitment to JCPOA

reporter 1222 — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 13:01:50 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Referring to the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting in Vienna, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said, “Participants reaffirmed their commitment to Iran nuclear deal as a key element of non-proliferation architecture.”

In a tweet on Wednesday, Ulyanov wrote, “Meeting of Joint Commission of JCPOA was held in the businesslike atmosphere. Participants reaffirmed their commitment to #IranDeal is a key element of non-proliferation architecture. Experts will further discuss nuclear implementation and economic issues.”

The Joint Commission was chaired on behalf of the EU High Representative Josep Borrell Fontelles by Helga Schmid and attended by representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Iran.

The meeting comes as the EU3 — the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — accused Iran on January 14 of violating the terms of the accord and announced that they plan to trigger a dispute settlement mechanism that could eventually restore UN Security Council sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Iran started reducing commitments to the deal after the US withdrew from the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

The E3 also failed to safeguard Iran’s economic interests in the face of US sanctions.

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Borrell to Keep 2015 deal ‘Alive’

reporter 1222 — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 06:32:40 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, vowed that he will do all he can to keep the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers “alive”.

“Met with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on the margins of @MunSecConf. Discussions included #MEPP and #JCPOA – as a coordinator I remain committed to listen to all sides and keep the #NuclearDeal alive,” Borrell tweeted late on Saturday after meeting Lavrov in Munich and talking about 2015 deal of Iran.

Lavrov’s meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif also took place on the sidelines of the Munich conference on Saturday. The two foreign ministers discussed the strengthening of mutual cooperation, among other issues.

“An in-depth exchange of views also took place on a number of issues on the international agenda, including the situation in Syria and issues related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal – France, Britain and Germany – have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.

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