Iran nuclear plans jeopardize Biden return to JCPOA, Europeans say
The E3 (France, Germany and UK) called implementation of the bill “incompatible" with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)
By LAHAV HARKOVBritain's Secretary of State for Foreign affairs Dominic Raab arrives at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain July 8, 2020.(photo credit: REUTERS)
Iran’s plans to expand its nuclear program risk stopping US President-elect Joe Biden from rejoining the Iran Deal, France, Germany and the UK’s foreign ministries said in a statement on Monday.The E3, as the European countries party to the 2015 Iran Deal between world powers and Iran are known, called Iran’s announced plans to install three more cascades of advanced centrifuges in Natanz, in contravention of the agreement, “deeply worrying.”They also expressed “great concern” over a law passed by the Iranian Parliament last week calling to expand the country’s nuclear program and stop granting access to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to monitor nuclear sites unless Europe eases sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sector by the end of the month. The law is not binding unless Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei grants approval.The new legislation came in response to the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the scientist at the head of Iran's nuclear program, including its nuclear weapons program, and an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian officials have blamed Israel for the killing and have threatened to retaliate.The E3 called implementation of the bill “incompatible with the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)] and Iran’s wider nuclear commitments” and said the Islamic Republic must not take steps to expand its nuclear program if it wants to continue engaging in diplomacy on the matter and preserve the JCPOA.Those actions risk “compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US administration,” the E3 said.Biden campaigned on a return to the Iran nuclear deal, as long as Tehran returns to compliance with the JCPOA. He reiterated that plan last week in an interview with The New York Times, saying a return an agreement restricting Iran’s nuclear program is “the best way to achieve some stability in the region,” and after that he would negotiate “to tighten and lengthen Iran’s nuclear constraints, as well as address the missile program,” while maintaining the option to “snap back” sanctions that would expire under the JCPOA’s sunset clauses.The E3 welcomed Biden’s statements and said they “will address Iran’s non-compliance within the framework of the JCPOA.”The E3 hailed the Iran deal as “a key achievement of multilateral diplomacy” that would “decisively contribute…to international peace and security.”“It remains the best, and currently the only, way to monitor and constrain Iran’s nuclear program,” the foreign ministries stated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against Biden's plan to return to the JCPOA in an online conversation with researcher Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute in Washington last week.Netanyahu noted that the plan would eventually allow Iran "to develop the advanced centrifuges that multiply tenfold...the capacity to enrich uranium very quickly...the critical factor in making atom bombs, and then burst to the bomb in no time."And the money Iran got through sanctions relief and US compensation for past sanctions allowed Iran "to fund an unbelievable campaign off conquest" via proxies throughout the region, Netanyahu said."I think the JCPOA was actually paving the way for both types of threats as they emerged and were realized, and I think...it’s a mistake to go back to the JCPOA. You shouldn’t go back to that flawed agreement," Netanyahu stated.
