DUBAI (UAE) – Iran’s foreign minister pushed for Washington to take fast action to return to the 2015 nuclear accord. He pointed out that legislation passed by parliament has prompted the government to toughen its nuclear stance if US sanctions are not relaxed by February 21.
Mohammad Javad Zarif also referred to elections in Iran in June. If a hardline president is chosem, this could further land the deal in jeopardy.
Zarif said in an interview with Hamshahri newspaper published on Saturday. Iran’s new year begins on March 21, “Time is running out for the Americans, both because of the parliament bill and the election atmosphere that will follow the Iranian New Year.”
The parliament passed the legislation in December that clearly mentioned a two-month deadline for the sanctions to be relaxed.
President Joe Biden’s administration is meticulously looking into ways to restore the nuclear deal that Iran had struck with world powers, however, had to be left in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, who restored sanctions.
Iran retaliated by breaching the terms of the accord in a step-by-step response.
Biden has said that Washington would follow suit if Tehran went back to strict compliance with the pact, and use that as a springboard to a broader agreement that might restrict Iran’s missile development and regional activities.
Tehran has said Washington must relax sanctions before it gets back to nuclear compliance, and cancelled out chances of negotiations on wider security issues such as Iran’s missile programme.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Iran on Friday in a virtual meeting with his British, French and German counterparts as they together discussed how to revive the deal.
“The more America procrastinates, the more it will lose … it will appear that Mr Biden’s administration doesn’t want to rid itself of Trump’s failed legacy,” Zarif said in the interview.
He said, “We don’t need to return to the negotiating table. It’s America that has to find the ticket to come to the table.”.
On Monday, Zarif was implying at a way to bring an end to the impasse over which side takes first action, by saying the steps could be synchronised.
The Iranian military on Saturday started a plant to make hybrid solid fuel for missiles and a factory to produce shoulder-fired rockets, state television reported.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that a new stand from the US on the Yemen war could prove to be helpful, after Biden said this week Washington was bringing its support to a halt for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign in Yemen.
“Stopping support … for the Saudi coalition, if not a political manoeuvre, could be a step towards correcting past mistakes,” state media quoted ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying.
But he added: “This alone won’t solve Yemen’s problem, and the air, sea and land blockade that killed thousands of people in the country due to a lack of food and medicine must be lifted, and the military attacks of the aggressor states led by Saudi Arabia must be ended”.
Biden said on Thursday the war, which lasted more than six-years, and is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, “has to end.” He also named veteran US diplomat Timothy Lenderking as the US special envoy for Yemen as part of its efforts to step up American diplomacy to try to stop the war.