MOSCOW, August 29. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden never delivered on his promise to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program as Washington has said no to any talks on this issue, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment.
"The spokesperson for the US Department of State said recently that the Biden administration is `still’ weighing negotiations as the best solution to contain Iran’s potential in the nuclear sphere but that the lack of due cooperation with the IAEA on the part of Tehran and certain steps it has taken toward escalation have rendered diplomatic efforts impossible," the Russian diplomat recounted. "In other words, Washington has walked away from negotiations and made it clear once again that it is not going to work toward implementing the agreements which were registered in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and sealed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231," she explained.
"In fact, the Biden administration has once again admitted that it cannot deliver on its election campaign pledges to return America to the JCPOA, while it is on these promises that it rode into the White House," Zakharova lamented.
According to the diplomat, the current team of US officials has followed through with the push by former US President Donald Trump to blow up the nuclear deal and undermine UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Moreover, she continued, the lawless actions by senior US officials have been accompanied with what she said were "baseless and absurd" accusations, made with the sole goal of giving off the impression that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threat to the international community.
"In turn, we proceed from the fact that UN Security Council Resolution 2231 is still valid and that it should be honored by all parties to the `nuclear deal,’ including the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France," Zakharova concluded as she urged the above-mentioned partners in the JCPOA to bring their policies in strict compliance with UNSC requirements.
On JCPOA
The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany struck a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear program. Then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, while incumbent President Biden has repeatedly signaled his willingness to bring the US back into the nuclear deal.
Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, the US and France have been in talks with Iran in Vienna since April 2021, seeking to restore the JCPOA in its original form. In November 2022, the latest round of talks with Iranian officials ended in the Austrian capital without achieving any specific results.