Iran has promised to “automatically” return to its nuclear commitments if US President-elect Joe Biden lifts sanctions imposed in the past two years.
“Tehran again meeting its commitments can be done automatically and needs no conditions or even negotiations,” Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in comments published in the state-run Iran daily.
“Once in the White House, Biden could lift all of these (sanctions) with three executive orders. If Biden’s administration does so, Iran’s return to nuclear commitments will be quick. Washington’s return to the deal, however, could wait.”
“The next stage that will need negotiating is America’s return which is not a priority. The first priority is America ending its law breaking and rebelling,” Zarif said.
Zarif argued that “America is obligated to implement Resolution 2231 as a member of the United Nations and its Security Council,” pointing to the UNSC resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal.
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“If it does carry out this resolution and sanctions are lifted and there are no obstacles to Iran’s economic activities, then Iran will carry out” its obligations under the deal, he said.
The accord offered Tehran relief from international sanctions in exchange for guarantees, verified by the United Nations, that its nuclear programme has no military aims.
President Hassan Rouhani meanwhile called President Donald Trump’s administration “unruly”, and said a Biden administration could “bring back the atmosphere” that prevailed when the landmark nuclear deal was struck in 2015.
Decades old US-Iranian tensions escalated after Trump unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions that have battered Iran’s economy.
While Trump has sought to maximise pressure on Iran and isolate it globally, Biden has proposed to offer the Islamic republic a “credible path back to diplomacy”.
Zarif described Biden as a “foreign affairs veteran” whom he has known for 30 years.
