Editor's note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain is a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and serves as an assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

As calls are made to revive the stalled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear talks in Vienna by the end of November 2021, the Iranian leadership has adopted a clear policy line which serves as a wake-up call for the Biden administration. It maintains that Washington, D.C. has treated it with duplicity and deception by employing a two-pronged strategy centering on maintaining military and economic leverage while pursuing negotiations.

If history is of any retrospective significance to the U.S., persisting with the same mundane strategies as diplomatic blunders with Tehran will only result in further frustration for champions of peace.

By now, there is broad consensus in the international community that the resuscitation of JCPOA talks is critical for both Middle Eastern and global stability, yet the Biden administration's approach to the talks threatens to upend it.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has already slammed the announcement of new sanctions dealing with the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program of the country's Revolutionary Guards and the Quds Force, which according to the Iranian leadership goes against the goal of achieving result-oriented dialogue based on mutual interests.

Furthermore, sanctions have retained steam since the Donald Trump era in 2018, which the Iranian leadership considers to be a roadblock to meaningful dialogue. Should the Biden administration persist with this brazen policy of retention, the Iranian leadership will continue to be defiant by citing U.S. duplicity.

That in itself will be a tragedy for the JCPOA. The Ebrahim Raisi administration has made it clear that the decision to replace coercive diplomacy and aggressive posturing lies solely with the U.S. while also underlining that a concessionary and unconditional approach will result in Iran's swift return to the 2015 JCPOA agreement.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh, while underlining prerequisites for joining the deal, said that a proper implementation plan and abandonment of Trump-era sanctions against the government would save the time and energy of the rest of the 4+1 countries, which should not be wasted with inconsistent arguments.

Part of the inconsistency from the Biden administration has been the decision to retain 2018-era sanctions imposed on "non-nuclear" grounds, which has less to do with enrichment activities and more with deliberately jeopardizing prospects for reviving the multilateral arrangement. 

This persistence mirrors Trump-era unilateral posturing that angered the Iranian leadership and bred widespread anti-American sentiment across the country. 

The misleading impression of the Iranian leadership not being amenable to talks is also a fallacy. The E3 statement issued on October 30, 2021, which underscored the importance of a negotiated solution to the Iran issue through continued diplomatic engagement by the UK, France, Germany and the U.S., was welcomed by the Raisi administration.

However, additional conditions, such as Iran committing to a "follow-on" agreement over defense and security, continue to breed skepticism over Western policy tilts. Note that earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov considered such American "add-ons" to have a counterproductive effect on the ultimate goal of Iran joining the JCPOA deal with only the revival of the original agreement in letter and spirit being the acceptable course of action.

Russia's sentiment is echoed by all regional players who have witnessed Iran suffer considerably from pernicious sanctions that have had an impact on economic growth and employment.

The truth is that add-ons and conditional talks will only be perceived as deceptive American terms of engagement, which is the primary roadblock to peace as it has little do with Iran joining the agreement.

Persistence of a maximum pressure strategy by the Biden administration can also result in further domestic quandaries given that American foreign policy experts have asserted that there is no Plan B to diplomacy while also acknowledging that there is no military solution to the Iranian nuclear program. The incentive of removing sanctions is the only way with which the Iranian leadership will be amicable toward the scheduled Vienna talks.

So far there is little relief for champions and peaceniks as aggressive posturing from the Biden administration while retaining sanctions continues to cloud optimism on the scheduled JCPOA talks in Vienna. Washington, D.C. must understand that calling for restraint and dialogue is one thing and coercive diplomacy is quite another.

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