Tehran ready to negotiate within JCPOA framework: Deputy FM
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi said Tehran is ready to negotiate on its nuclear program within the framework of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive of Action (JCPOA), in order to remove sanctions illegally imposed on the country.
In an interview with Italy’s Radio Radicale, Takht-Ravanchi said Iran has repeatedly announced its readiness to negotiate despite the maximum pressure policy which was adopted by the US President Donald Trump during his first term and continued under his successor’s administration.
Trump undertook the strategy after ordering the withdrawal of the US from the nuclear agreement in 2018.
“At the time, the European countries that were still members of the JCPOA asked Iran not to withdraw from the deal in response to the US decision and told us that if Iran did not withdraw from its obligations under the JCPOA, they would compensate for the damages caused by the US violation of the JCPOA”, Takht-Ravanchi said.
He said that Iran waited for a year, but the European countries failed to live up to their commitments. Therefore, Iran was forced to roll back the limits it had accepted under the landmark accord.
Iran’s new government has repeatedly announced its readiness to begin negotiations aimed at removing the sanctions.
Iran has already held two rounds of talks with the three European parties to the deal — Germany, France, Britain — since November and is scheduled to hold another one on January 13.
“We are a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)” Takht-Ravanchi said, adding that, “Nuclear weapons have no place in the country’s defense doctrine. Numerous reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show that Iran has 100% fulfilled its commitments.”