Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, said in a statement on Wednesday that they have heard encouraging and positive words from the Biden administration on the revival of the nuclear deal, but that these words have either been broken or reversed in practice. Khamenei added that these are not good enough and they want these to be translated to only actions in the future. Tehran will follow suit if this becomes the case, Khamenei indicated.
Iran has recently given a deadline to the US for next week in order to reverse the sanctions implemented towards the country during the Trump administration. On the condition that the Biden administration fails to do so, Tehran has expressed that it will block the spontaneous inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Iranian nuclear sites. The inspections aforementioned are a requirement defined by the nuclear deal, under the section known as the ‘Additional Protocol’.
The European members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the E3, have recently voiced their demand for Iran to not prevent the inspections of the IAEA. Subsequently, the French Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that they, alongside Germany and the UK, will discuss the issue with the US on 18 February. On the other hand, Iran’ Envoy to the IAEA indicated that the IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran to discuss the scale-backs announced by Iran.
Biden has consistently stated that the US will restore the nuclear deal if Iran agrees to retract its recent divergences from its nuclear program commitments. Elsewhere, Iran has reminded the US, on numerous occasions, that it should take the first step in the revitalization of the deal since it was the party that withdrew from it, back in 2018.
