Biden to UN: America will comply with Iran deal if Tehran complies

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – US President Joe Biden used his first address to the UN General Assembly to affirm that America is prepared to resume full compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran deal, provided Iran does the same, the Jerusalem Post reports. At the same time, the president said in his speech Tuesday, the US “remains committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”

Biden has consistently stated he is willing to return to the Obama-brokered JCPOA, from which the US under former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018. Originally signed by Iran, the US, China, Russia, France, Germany and Great Britain, the agreement was that Iran would limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. However, having withdrawn from the deal unilaterally, the US reimposed sanctions on Iran and Tehran drastically increased its uranium production.

Since Biden took over the US presidency in January, the US has had indirect talks with Iran through European Union-brokered meetings in Vienna, with the aim to resume bilateral compliance with the JCPOA.

“We are working with the P5+1 to engage Iran diplomatically, to seek a return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. We are prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same,” Biden told the UN General Assembly. Referencing the recent US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden added: “We’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy.”

In his own address to the UN General Assembly, recently inaugurated Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran was interested in continuing talks about JCPOA with a view to ending sanctions. “The Islamic Republic considers the useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive (US) sanctions,” Raisi said. Moreover, Raisi added: “Nukes have no place in our defense doctrine and defense policy.”

Latest Worthy News