Iranian Rouhani hopes Biden returns to Obama-era nuclear deal while calling Trump a “tyrant”

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Speaking at a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said the ball was “now in U.S. court.”

“If Washington returns to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, we will also fully honor our commitments under the pact,” he said, adding in reference to Trump that “the era of a tyrant is to end and today is the last day of his nefarious reign. ” ”

With Biden, who was a member of the Obama administration negotiating the original deal, stepping into office Thursday, hopes are high for rapprochement.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rouhani punished Trump, saying his four-year term “bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and caused problems for his people and the world.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks in the parliament of the capital Tehran on September 3, 2019.

What was in the nuclear deal?

Officially titled the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), the agreement was limited to Iran’s civilian nuclear program, thus preventing the country from developing nuclear weapons.

The agreement, reached in Vienna after two years of intensive talks orchestrated by the Obama administration, was signed by Iran and six other nations in 2015.

Under the agreement, the Iranian government agreed on three key things: reducing the number of centrifuges in the country by two-thirds, reducing its enriched uranium reserve, and limiting continuous enrichment to 3.67%, a sufficient amount for power supply, but not enough to build a nuclear bomb.

In addition, Iran was required to limit uranium research and development and to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) some access to its nuclear facilities.

In return for compliance, all nuclear sanctions against Iran were lifted in January 2016, reconnecting the country’s stagnant economy with international markets.

Trump dropped the deal in 2018, though the deal itself still exists, with Iran, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, China and Russia still part of it. However, since Washington moved away, Iran has increased uranium enrichment beyond the limits set by the agreement, raising concerns that Tehran could pursue a nuclear weapons program in the future.

The Biden movement

Biden has expressed a desire to return to the 2015 deal, and wrote to CNN last year that Trump had “recklessly launched a policy that worked to keep America safe and replaced it with one that has worsened the threat “.

“I will offer Tehran a credible path to diplomacy,” the then-candidate wrote in September. “If Iran strictly complies with the nuclear deal again, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-up negotiations.”

Despite this, some had feared that the events of the last months of the Trump administration could tie Biden’s hands, as both the United States and Israel increased pressure on Iran, potentially undermining future diplomatic pleas.
In November, a top Iranian nuclear scientist was killed near Tehran, in an operation the government blamed on Israel, while in late December, US nuclear-capable B-52 bombers were moved. in the Middle East while defense officials spoke of the potential for a conflict a year after Soleimani’s death.
As Iran announced this month that it had resumed uranium enrichment to 20% purity and seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tank in the Persian Gulf, the anniversary passed without a hitch. conflict between American and Iranian forces, opening the door to the kind of diplomacy. apparently received by Rouhani this week.

CNN’s Steve George, Ramin Mostaghim and Mostafa Salem contributed to the information.

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