Iran says to return to nuclear commitments if Biden lifts sanctions

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (center right) speaks with IAEA Director General Mariano Grossi (center left) before a meeting in Tehran, Iran, August 25, 2020. /AP

Iran will "automatically" return to its nuclear commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if Joe Biden, the projected winner in the U.S. presidential election, lifts sanctions imposed over the past two years, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday.

Tehran's return to its commitments "can be done automatically and needs no conditions or even negotiations," Zarif told Iranian media.

"We are ready to discuss how the United States can re-enter the accord," Zarif said. "The situation will improve in the next few months. Biden can lift all sanctions with three executive orders."

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Biden has pledged to rejoin the accord, agreed by Washington when he was vice president if Iran also returns to compliance.

Then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L, front) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi leave a meeting with the House Democratic Caucus about the Iran nuclear deal in Washington, U.S., July 15, 2015. /AP

Decades-old U.S.-Iranian tensions escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the landmark agreement in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.

While Trump has sought to maximize pressure on Iran and isolate it globally, Biden has proposed to offer the Islamic republic a "credible path back to diplomacy."

Zarif argued that "America is obligated to implement Resolution 2231 as a member of the United Nations and its Security Council," pointing to the UNSC resolution that enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal.

"If it does carry out this resolution and sanctions are lifted and there are no obstacles to Iran's economic activities, then Iran will carry out" its obligations under the deal, he said.

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Iran, which denies it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, has since May 2019 gradually suspended most of its key obligations under the agreement.

Reuter reported on Wednesday that Iran has fired up advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges that it had installed underground at its Natanz site, in the latest breach of the deal, citing a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"On November 14, 2020, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding UF6 into the recently installed cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) in Natanz," the IAEA report to member states dated Tuesday said.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)

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