TEHRAN – Abolfazl Amouei, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said on Wednesday that the draft agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal is now ready, but is vital for the Iran to obtain assurances that the United States will not leave the agreement if it is revived.

The United States under Donald Trump left the nuclear deal, officially called the JCPOA, in May 2018 and imposed the toughest sanctions on Iran as part of its maximum pressure campaign against Iran.

Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the end of economic and financial periods.

After the United States abandoned the agreement, the Europeans also failed to honor their commitments under the JCPOA.

Trump made such an illegal move despite Iran fully abiding by the terms of the deal.

“It is very important for Iran to get a guarantee from the other side,” Amouei insisted.

Iran has stuck to the deal a year after Trump quit the deal.

The legislator said that Iran had complied with its obligations under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and this was confirmed by the quarterly reports of the IAEA board and director general of the IAEA.

Amouei, Tehran’s people’s representative in parliament, said Iran’s current concern is whether this time the Americans really want to go back to the accord and adhere to it, or whether they still want to ignore it.

Consequently, the United States must guarantee Iran that it will no longer withdraw from the agreement and that the Europeans will respect their commitments.

Parliament is aware of the talks in Vienna

The member of the parliamentary committee said that when an agreement is reached, the parliament is informed, examines it and announces its position.

“However, there are key issues and until those issues are resolved we cannot say that we have reached an agreement,” he said, noting that detailed text has been prepared for the agreement.

The final stage of negotiations is always the most important stage as key issues should be assigned at this stage, he acknowledged.

Amouei added: “If what the Islamic Republic of Iran wants is achieved in the negotiations, we will impose restrictions on our nuclear program after the lifting of sanctions, verification and parliamentary approval.”

The MP further said that getting an inherent safeguard is also very important for Iran, in the sense that Tehran needs to retain the tools of its nuclear program so that if the other side repeats its previous mistake and quits agreement, Iran can quickly abandon its limited nuclear program.

US officials must provide political guarantees

“The Americans are trying to distract us from our rational demands by delaying the talks and not presenting any initiative,” he said.
According to the MP, Iran has offered various solutions and initiatives within the framework of the Vienna talks.

“First, US officials must provide political assurances and explicitly state that they want to honor this agreement,” Amouei said.

He added that Iran’s other demand is that the other side give Iran an economic guarantee so that if it backs out of the deal again and Tehran suffers again, it will have the means. reduce economic losses.

The lifting of sanctions should not be limited to nuclear sanctions

The MP stressed that the parliament fully supports the Iranian negotiating team as it is responsible for defending Iran’s national interests and trying to lift the sanctions.

“Our goal is to lift the maximum level of sanctions. The lifting of sanctions should not be limited to nuclear sanctions, but all sanctions that hinder our economic benefits and do not allow us to have trade relations with other countries should be lifted,” the former diplomat reiterated.

The MP said the parliament hopes that the Iranian negotiators will achieve the maximum and desired result.

“We don’t pay attention to media controversies and deadlines from the West, because for us in negotiations, red lines are more important than deadlines,” Amouei concluded.

Logical red lines

Since the start of the new round of talks in Vienna on November 29 after Ebrahim Raisi took over as Iran’s president, the Western media have been trying to portray Iran as the party hesitant to relaunch the nuclear deal. of 2015. When the Iranian negotiating team presented practical initiatives, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters used all means to say that Iran’s demands are maximalist, but they did not provide evidence to their assertions.

The talks in Vienna have now reached a critical stage. Reports from Vienna indicate that the talks are at a “decisive” point. On November 29, Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said, “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” The sentence indicated that Iran is seriously pursuing the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) while earnestly defending the rights of the Iranian people.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that the negotiating team clearly sees Tehran’s red lines. As the negotiation is mainly based on a give and take, Iran has shown the necessary flexibility to revive the internationally agreed agreement, but the Western parties are not showing the necessary flexibility.

When it comes to action, the European troika, also known as E3, is not even willing to back down from its meager demands. However, they expect Iran to back down from its critical red lines. One thing is now certain.

Even if the talks fail, Tehran will not back down on its logical red lines.