US: Pressure must increase if Iran does not agree to proposed deal to revive JCPOA

John Kirby, the White House National Security Council's strategic communications coordinator, warned on Monday, July 17, that if Iran does not accept the proposed agreement in the negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), pressures on the Islamic Republic will intensify.

In an interview with CBC News, John Kirby said that there are many common points regarding the achievements of Joe Biden's trip to the Middle East and the common interests of the United States and Saudi Arabia regarding the dispute over Iran's nuclear program. Saudi Arabia also does not want to see an Iran armed with a nuclear bomb. They absolutely do not want that outcome.

The White House official stated: The two countries acknowledged that "no problem in the Middle East can be easily solved with a nuclear Iran. President Biden believes that the best path to preventing (Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons) is through diplomacy and a negotiated agreement."

He added: "There is an agreement on the table now, and it is up to Iran to accept that agreement and move towards that outcome. If they want sanctions relief, there is an agreement in front of them now. All they have to do is implement that agreement on the table."

John Kirby further warned: "If Iran does not accept, as President Biden has clearly stated, pressure on Iran will increase with the cooperation of allies and partners in the region and Europe, while at the same time ensuring that we have sufficient military capacity to defend allies in the region and national security interests."

John Kirby, in response to the moderator's question about the details of such pressures, said, "These pressures could be through additional sanctions. There are different ways to impose them. But we certainly are not taking new sanctions off the table, even though they have been strengthened."

Negotiations to revive the JCPOA resumed on December 28, 2018, after a hiatus of several months following the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi's government.

Ali Bagheri Kani was Iran's chief negotiator in this new round of talks, which continued in Vienna with the participation of the JCPOA member states and the indirect presence of the United States. In this regard, it was said that the draft agreement to revive the JCPOA is almost complete.

Following reports of such a draft, US officials said that Iran had demanded the removal of the Revolutionary Guard Corps from the list of terrorist groups. On the other hand, in early April of this year, an informed source close to the JCPOA revival talks in Vienna told Radio Farda that the Islamic Republic government's commitment to stop operational follow-up to the case of the killing of Qassem Soleimani was one of the main conditions for removing the IRGC from the US government's terrorist list.

After the halt in negotiations to revive the JCPOA in Vienna in March of last year, Iran and the United States have been blaming each other for the halt in these negotiations.

On July 28 of this year, Iran and the United States held indirect talks in Doha, Qatar, mediated by the European Union's foreign policy chief, but these talks also failed to produce any results.

AmirAbdollahian: America should stop resorting to pressure and sanctions

IRNA also reported on Monday that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about the need to reach a "good agreement."

According to the report, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian stressed that there is "no doubt about Iran's will" to reach a "good, strong, and lasting" agreement.

The Iranian Foreign Minister further called on the United States to put aside "excessive demands and doubts" and "take steps with realism towards achieving a solution and reaching an agreement" and to "stop repeating the ineffective approach of the past and unconstructive behavior and resorting to the levers of pressure and sanctions."

While the Iranian Foreign Minister has spoken with the European Union's foreign policy chief, the French Foreign Minister said last week that there are only a few weeks left before the window for revitalizing the JCPOA closes.

Calling the "situation" intolerable, Catherine Colonna accused Iran of using delaying tactics, returning to positions agreed upon in Vienna in the Doha talks, while continuing to advance its uranium enrichment program.

The French Foreign Minister had stated that there was still "a window of opportunity for Iran to decide to accept the agreement that was working, but time is running out."

Ms. Colonna warned that if Iran persists with its current stance, it will be on the verge of becoming a nuclear weapons state.

Source: Radio Farda