Iran Nuclear Deal 'Off the Table,' U.S. Affirms

Reviving the Iran nuclear deal remains off the agenda for the Biden administration, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on August 26, as Tehran called for "new negotiations" to update the agreement before it can be revived.

Iran's new foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said last week that the agreement "cannot be revived in its current form" due to sunset clauses that have expired and insisted that new talks are needed to resuscitate the agreement.

However, a State Department spokesperson told RFE/RL that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 nuclear accord is formally known, "is not on the table right now." The United States unilaterally exited the deal in 2018 under then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

"The United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome," the spokesperson said.

Still, Washington views "diplomacy as the best way to achieve a sustainable, effective solution," the spokesperson said.

During a televised interview, Araqchi conceded that renegotiating the agreement would be challenging.

"This document definitely needs to be reopened and parts of it needs to be changed. That is no easy task because once you reopen a document, putting it back together will be challenging," he said in a live television interview.

Complicating matters further are the November presidential election in the United States and ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Araqchi said the Ukraine war had "deeply impacted how Europeans view security," while the Gaza conflict has "completely upended the situation in the region."

The minister, who was one of the architects of the deal between Iran and six major world powers, said the format of talks since 2021 to revive the agreement can no longer work.

"New negotiations are needed," Araqchi added.

The deal restricted Iran's nuclear program and capped uranium enrichment at 3.67 percent. In return, the United States lifted sanctions that had suffocated Iran's economy and energy sectors.

But Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under its terms. Iran retaliated by gradually scaling back its commitments and is currently enriching uranium at 60 percent.

Araqchi, then a deputy foreign minister, led Iran's negotiating team when Tehran and Washington started indirect talks in April 2021 to restore the agreement. Negotiations paused when hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi came to power in Iran and a new team of negotiators entered the fray.

But talks were suspended in September 2022 in the wake of nationwide protests that rocked Iran for months. Hundreds were killed in the unrest as the authorities cracked down on demonstrations.

Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, who succeeded Raisi after he died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, has vowed to engage the West.

But the ultimate decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has praised efforts by conservatives to expand the country's nuclear program.

By RFE/RL 

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