Speaking in an interview with SOCIETY Magazine, the Ambassador of Iran to Austria, Abbas Bagherpour Ardekani said that these rounds of talks are not aimed at reaching a new nuclear agreement. Rather, they were started when the US administration announced that their former policy in withdrawing the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action/JCPOA in May 2018 has been a strategic mistake and failed policy, thus expressing their intention to get back to the JCPOA.

“Now, the remaining participants of the JCPOA are discussing how the US’ unwarranted unilateral withdrawal from the deal can be rectified and under what terms the US would be eligible to re-join the 2015 Vienna Agreement, he added. “These talks – as an important multilateral process – are sensitive and complicated. Different external elements may negatively or positively affect this process. We appreciate Austria’s constructive and positive role as well as its role as the host of the talks with the aim of the restoration of the integrity of the JCPOA. In our view, the most important element for this multilateral process to become successful is that all parties engaged should have genuine and serious determination to guarantee a conclusive outcome. For the Iranian part, I can confirm that this serious intention does exist.”

The envoy went on to say, “The JCPOA is founded on two pillars: Iran’s nuclear-related commitments and the reciprocal commitments for the removal of the respective UN, EU and US sanctions against Iran as well as promoting normal economic and trade relations with our country. All these commitments are meticulously worded and explained in detail in the JCPOA and resolution 2231. In accordance with the JCPOA, other parties are committed “to ensure Iran’s access in areas of trade, technology, finance, and energy”. Specifically, the United States, in addition to its obligation to remove sanctions against Iran, is explicitly committed, to “make best efforts in good faith to sustain this JCPOA and to prevent interference with the realization of the full benefit by Iran of the sanctions removal”.”

“Iran has been fully implementing its JCPOA related commitments since 2015. The 15 consecutive reports of the Director-General of the IAEA affirms this fact. While Iran was in full compliance with its commitments, the US launched what their former President called a “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran, albeit a failed one. When the US withdrew from the deal and violated its terms and the UN Security Council resolution 2231, Iran, mostly based on the promises it received from the Europeans, maintained its part of the deal in full for more than one year, and only when it became apparent that EU/E3 are unable to rectify the shortcomings, Iran decided to seize performance of some of its commitments in a gradual manner and in accordance with its rights stipulated in the JCPOA,” Bagherpour Ardekani noted.

Seizing the performance of reciprocal commitments was the only available remedy for Iran, both based on the provisions of the JCPOA itself and on general legal principles. The bitter fact is that, while we have been completely deprived of our benefits under the JCPOA for almost four years; some states including the Europeans were not abiding by their commitments and more regrettably, they were kept silent about the unlawful and inhumane sanctions of the United States, which have been amounted to economic terrorism against Iranian people,” he added.

The envoy stressed, “Now that the US wants to rejoin the deal, they need to realize that they should address concerns arising from their past failures, the least of which is that future performance of their commitments cannot be relied on; unless it could be objectively verified. The US needs to make a decision on the removal of sanctions and show its significant distance from previous failed policies. This will be possible by removing all sanctions inconsistent with the JCPOA, in a verifiable manner as well as taking action in providing guarantees.”

RHM/PR