“No Renegotiations On Nuclear Deal With Biden Period”: Iran FM

President-Elect Joe Biden has long signaled he’ll seek US reentry into participation in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, brokered under the prior Obama administration. On Thursday Iran issued its unwavering position to the incoming Biden administration, saying there will be no renegotiations of the deal whatsoever. 

Biden has said the US will lift sanctions and return to the JCPOA should Iran return to conformity to its stipulations, namely caps on uranium enrichment. Quoting Iran’s foreign minister, The Times of Israel reports on Thursday:

“It will never be renegotiated. Period,” Zarif tells a conference in Italy, speaking remotely.

He says Iran won’t agree to any curbs on its missile program or backing of regional proxies unless Western countries stop their “malign behavior” in the Middle East.

“As long as they’re not able to put up, they have to shut up,” Zarif says.

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Of course, there are multiple potential hurdles facing Biden, not the least of which is Trump’s maximum pressure campaign ramping up right up to inauguration day on January 20 is designed to box him in.

The Daily Beast also reported this week Pompeo has been issued free reign to hammer the Islamic Republic in any way short of provoking major war.

But other major hurdles include steps Iran has taken to intentionally breach stipulations under the deal as a response to US-led sanctions, the most important of which has been to blast past uranium enrichment caps.

Trump may only have seven weeks left in office, but he’s given his top advisers the green light to batter the Iranian regime—anything that doesn’t hazard a full-on war before Joe Biden is inauguratedhttps://t.co/zZnjbEPVIZ

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 1, 2020

As of this week Iranian parliament has passed a bill that would require Tehran leaders to boot all international nuclear inspectors from the country in a month, should Iran’s access to the global banking system and oil markets not be restored within that time frame.

We’ve seen time and again on Iran that a lot can happen in a mere days and weeks, and there’s still a long way to go till January 20.