A White House official made it clear that President Joe Biden supports diplomacy in dealing with the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program, but would not offer sanctions relief to Iran just to bring it back to the negotiating table.
This clarification follows the publication of Biden’s statement made in an interview with CBS, in which he said that the United States would not lift sanctions on Iran to bring it back to the negotiating table, and that Tehran should stop uranium enrichment first.
Reuters quoted the US official as saying that Biden had meant that Iran should stop enrichment beyond the limits stipulated in the nuclear agreement, not completely stop enrichment, so that the two sides could negotiate.
"The US position has not changed one iota. The United States wants Iran to return to (compliance) with its obligations under the JCPOA, and if it does so, the United States will do the same," added the official, who requested anonymity.
Iran said in January that it had resumed uranium enrichment to a purity level of 20% at the underground Fordow nuclear facility, which is well above the limit stipulated in the nuclear deal, albeit well below the 90% needed to build weapons.
After long negotiations, in 2015 the United States reached an agreement with Iran preventing it from possessing nuclear weapons, which was also signed by China, Russia, Germany, France and Britain, before it was ratified by the United Nations.
But former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, saying it was insufficient at the nuclear level.
Trump re-imposed sanctions on Tehran that were lifted in exchange for fulfilling its nuclear obligations, which prompted Tehran to exceed these commitments.
In an interview with Iranian television, Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said that his country wants the United States to return to the nuclear deal, and that the US administration knows that it is unable to obtain a better agreement than that agreement.
Zarif added that his country will implement a law enacted by Parliament to suspend the additional protocol, if Washington does not lift the sanctions on Tehran.
In other statements by Zarif on CNN, he said that the Iranian ballistic missile system was discussed during the negotiations of the nuclear agreement signed in 2015, but the United States was not able to address this issue, as he put it.
The Iranian leader, Ali Khamenei, said that America must lift all kinds of embargoes in a practical way, before Iran returns to implementing its obligations in the nuclear deal.