In a clash of wills, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that Iran will not retreat its steps towards the 2015 nuclear treaty unless the US lifts all sanctions.
Since the 3 European nations- the United Kingdom, Germany and France- already withdrew from their commitments before they tread on the path again, the leader stated that these countries do not have the authority to put forth any conditions.
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During a conference with the air force commanders of Iran, Khamenei said, “For a very short time after the deal they temporarily lifted some of the sanctions, but then they turned around again and even increased sanctions.”
Speaking about the treaty while mentioning its formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, he said, “So they have no right to set conditions on this. The side that has the right to set conditions on JCPOA’s continuation is Iran because Iran fulfilled all its commitments from the beginning.”
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Iran has formulated a set of conditions for the deal that it won’t be budging from, the leader said while adding, “If they (the US) want Iran to return to its JCPOA commitments, the US must completely lift sanctions. And not just verbally on the paper. They must revoke the sanctions in action and we will verify it.”
This was the first time Khamenei spoke about the nuclear treaty after Joe Biden came to power. The latter had earlier said that the US will restore the nation’s role in the nuclear deal as Trump unilaterally moved out of it in 2018, a step that he said will mount pressure on Iran.
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However, Biden administration stated that for the US to do so, Iran must make the first move and begin fulfilling its commitments that are a part of the historic treaty.
Following Biden’s predecessor’s imposition of sanctions on Iran, the latter started withdrawing itself from few of the commitments it made.
Things escalated quickly for the worse soon after top nuclear scientist of Iran, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was astonishingly killed in December near Tehran. Shortly, Iran accelerated its nuclear programme and enriched purity levels of uranium to 20%- weapon-grade level- along with the scaling of its military drills comprising of firing of cruise missiles under its naval drill in Oman last month among others.
“This is the definitive and irreversible policy of the Islamic Republic, and all of the country’s officials are unanimous on this, and no one will deviate from it,” Khamenei said on Sunday.
According to the laws of Iran, the supreme leader has the authority to make the final decision.
The Foreign Minister of Iran, Mohammed Javad Zarif presented a proposal last week that stated the participation of Europe’s foreign policy chief, Josef Borrell, in “choreographing” the steps to pull Iran and the US back towards the nuclear deal.
