The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs asked the European Union (EU) on Monday February 1 to mediate between Iran and the United States to save the Iran nuclear deal.

"There can clearly be a mechanism to either synchronize 'the return of the two countries in the spurs of the agreement," or coordinate what can be done, "Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN International.

According to him, the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell can "put on his hat as coordinator of the joint committee" to monitor the 2015 agreement "and choreograph the measures that must be taken by the United States and the measures that must be taken by Iran ".

The Vienna Agreement signed by Tehran with the great powers (United States, China, Russia, Germany, France, United Kingdom) as well as the EU aimed to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring the atomic bomb, with strict limits on its nuclear program, which is supposed to remain exclusively civilian and peaceful.

The international community had in return lifted all its economic sanctions against Iran.

But former US President Donald Trump, deeming him insufficient on the nuclear front and lamenting that he is not attacking Iran's ballistic missile program and Iran's other "destabilizing" activities in the Middle East, withdrew Washington in 2018, and reinstated and then toughened US sanctions.

The Europeans have always denounced the decision of the Republican billionaire, and have done everything for three years to try to save the agreement.

The new president Joe Biden has promised to join this text again, but on condition that Tehran first comes back to the nails of its nuclear restrictions, from which it has started to free itself in response to the sanctions of the United States.

Open door

However, Iranian diplomacy had so far demanded that the Biden administration take the first step, by lifting the sanctions before anything else.

Mohammad Javad Zarif's proposal seems to open the door for the first time to a "synchronized" process, even if he reaffirms that the Americans, who have left the agreement, must first "demonstrate their good faith".

In an interview with the American channel NBC which aired Monday, the new American secretary of state Antony Blinken estimated that it would take "a while" for Iran to come back in the nails, then still "a certain time" for that. the United States "assesses whether it has fulfilled its commitments".

"The timing is not the problem," replied his Iranian counterpart.

According to him, some limits can be met again "in less than a day", "others can take a few days or weeks, but it will not take longer than it takes for the United States to enforce orders. presidential elections "necessary to lift the sanctions.

With AFP

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