Raeisi: Iran Has Been Ready for Deal on JCPOA but US, E3 Made Miscalculation
Iranian President Sayyed Ebrahim Raeisi has reiterated Tehran’s readiness to reach a “fair” final agreement on reviving the US-abandoned 2015 nuclear deal, saying, however, that the delusional US and its European allies made a miscalculation by deciding to interfere in Iran’s domestic affairs.
“The Islamic Republic has expressed its readiness to finalize the negotiations and reach a fair agreement since months ago and has shown its goodwill to achieve this goal,” Raeisi said in a post on his Twitter account.
“However, the US and recently the three European countries [Britain, France and Germany] had a delusion and made a miscalculation,” he added.
Instead of making use of the “opportunity of the negotiations”, the US and E3 interfered in Iran’s internal affairs, the Iranian chief executive added.
The stalemate on the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was triggered in May 2018, when former US president Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the accord reached between Iran and the world powers and imposed harsh economic sanctions against the country under the so-called “maximum pressure” policy.
The negotiations to salvage the JCPOA have been at a standstill since August 2022 due to Washington’s insistence on its hard-nosed position of not removing all the sanctions that were imposed on the Islamic Republic by the previous US administration.
Iran, whose strict adherence to the deal had been certified several times by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), maintains that it is necessary for the US to offer guarantees that it will not withdraw or violate the agreement again. The US has refused, complicating the prospects of the talks.
Iran informed IAEA of all nuclear activities: AEOI chief
Meanwhile, the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Mohammad Eslami also said on Friday that the country has informed the UN nuclear watchdog of all its nuclear activities.
Speaking to Fars news agency, Eslami added that there is no tension between Iran and the IAEA but Tehran expects the agency and its Director General Rafael Grossi “not to be a part of the political and psychological pressure” on it.
He noted that the so-called maximum pressure policy has been implemented against Iran for many years “with specified purposes”.
The IAEA chief, in a leaked confidential report on February 1, accused Iran of making an undeclared change to the interconnection between the two clusters of advanced machines enriching uranium to up to 60% purity at its Fordow plant.
The accusation came despite a letter sent by Iran to the IAEA in November, informing the agency of a decision to start enriching uranium to the purity level of 60% at its Fordow nuclear facility.
Moreover, Iran has fitted and launched new centrifuges at two empty halls in Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. The halls, under Iran’s commitment to the terms of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal had been vacant but centrifuges have been installed there once again.
In a Wednesday interview with Russia’s Sputnik news agency, the AEOI chief criticized the UN nuclear agency for the leakage of information about the country’s nuclear energy program to the opponents of diplomatic efforts to revive the JCPOA.
He expressed regret over the IAEA’s “political, unprofessional behavior” in connection with the disclosure of the JCPOA’s confidential reports to those who oppose the negotiations to restore the nuclear accord.
Source: Press TV