President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has urged US President-elect Joe Biden to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and lift sanctions imposed by outgoing president Donald Trump.
“The ball is in the US court now,” he said in a televised cabinet meeting.
He offered the US that if Washington rejoins the 2015 deal, Tehran will also fully respect its commitments.
He said a tyrant’s era came to an end and “today is the final day of his ominous reign,” a possible hint of Trump’s rule.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran reached new height last year when US assassinated Iran army commander Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Biden hinted at returning to the 2015 deal in a write up for CNN in September last year and criticized Trump for “recklessly tossing away a policy that was working to keep America safe and replacing it with one that has worsened the threat.”
He offered Tehran that if returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the US would rejoin the agreement.
EUROPEAN UNION: Meanwhile, the European Union fears that Iran’s violation of the 2015 agreement will harm efforts to get the US back on board.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, in a letter to EU foreign ministers, said the deal is at a “critical juncture”, and added “We have seen very concerning developments” due to new rounds of US sanctions.”
“That risks undermining diplomatic efforts, including ours, to facilitate a US return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and to bring back Iran to the full implementation of its JCPOA commitments.”
The top diplomats of the EU will take up the nuclear deal issue in Jan 25 meeting.
The JCPOA is the instrument agreed to implement the 2015 accord.
However, the signals sent out by Iran and the US point to an otherwise different scenario of the 2015 deal after Trump’s departure.
