TEHRAN, Iran, November 7. Iran is likely to reach an agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear deal by solving its domestic issues and negotiating with the US, the former director general of Iran's Foreign Ministry Javid Ghorbanoghli told Trend.
The first step is to solve Iran’s domestic issue because the domestic problem and violation of the 2231 UNSC resolution are being abused by the other side to pressure Iran to back down from its stance, he said adding that the ban on Iranian arms exports within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action expired in 2020.
Ghorbanoghli pointed out that the West still wants to reach an agreement with Iran over the revival of the nuclear deal and curbing Iran’s nuclear program via the JCPOA is still the US priority.
Although Iran’s domestic situation and export of drones have become a problem and the West wants to pressure Iran to roll back from its demands Europe and the US statements indicate that they are still considering diplomacy to solve the problem, he noted.
Therefore this problem could be resolved by Iran solving its domestic and drone issues so it would prevent violation of the 2231 resolution and trigger mechanism, Ghorbanoghli added.
He indicated that delaying talks to revive the JCPOA would damage Iran’s economy.
"The JCPOA was the strongest international achievement that needed to be secured but Iran's negotiating team failed to reach an agreement in five rounds of talks. Now negotiators know that they can not achieve more advantages," Ghorbanoghli noted.
He argued that the US can not give any point to the Iranian negotiator due to the current domestic situation because of its public opinion, therefore, Iran's domestic issue should be solved and direct negotiation with the US should be arranged.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories that have not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA on Sept.5.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped into the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
As reported, in late 2020, the Iranian parliament has decided to implement a strategic plan to tackle the sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and six countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran. According to the decision of the Iranian parliament, as of February 23, Iran suspended the implementation of additional steps and an additional protocol provided for in the nuclear deal.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals.