Zarif urges US to bury Trump’s ‘failed maximum pressure’ policy

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on the US administration to abandon the “failed” pressure policy and change its course of action on Iran.

Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Monday, saying Iran has so far been acting in compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Tehran and the P5+1 in July 2015, and the reprisal measures it has taken have been based on Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA.

He called on the members of the US administration to read the paragraph.

Under Paragraph 36, Iran can claim that any of the P5+1 is "not meeting its commitments" under the JCPOA. That triggers a 35-day set of meetings. Once that clock runs, Iran can claim the issue "has not been resolved to [its] satisfaction" and that it “deems” that the issue "constitutes significant nonperformance”. Iran can then "cease performing its commitments under this JCPOA in whole or in part”.

Zarif noted that it is not clear whether US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are prepared to stop using the failed so-called maximum pressure policy pursued by former president Donald Trump and secretary of state Mike Pompeo and cease using the sanctions, which are tantamount to “economic terrorism” as a “bargaining leverage” against Iran.

His tweet read: “It remains unclear whether @POTUS and @SecBlinken are ready to bury the failed “maximum pressure” policy of Trump and @mikepompeo, and cease using #EconomicTerrorism as bargaining “leverage”.

Iran is in compliance with the #JCPOA. Just read paragraph 36.

Time to change course.”

Under Trump, the US pulled out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Iran. Mainly targeting Iran’s oil and banking sectors, the sanctions have been imposed in a bid to cripple the country’s economy and bring the Islamic Republic to the negotiating table to hammer out a new deal. Although the sanctions have troubled the Iranian economy and impeded delivery of humanitarian aid to the country, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they have failed to produce the desired result thanks to Iranians’ maximum resistance.

Condemning the move at that time, European signatories to the deal announced that they are committed to the deal and are resolved to preserve it and safeguard Iran’s interests within its framework.

They, however, has so far failed to fulfill the pledge, which has triggered Iran’s response as per Paragraph 36.

In December 2020, the members of the Iranian Parliament passed a law that tasked the administration with suspending more commitments under the nuclear deal.

Officially known as the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, the law was adopted in order to further Iran’s counter-steps in the face of the non-commitment to the nuclear deal by the US and its European allies, namely the UK, France and Germany.

Iran has, however, repeatedly stressed that it will return to full compliance one the other parties fully fulfill their commitments under the deal.

Zarif’s tweet came after remarks by Blinken to US lawmakers, in which he had expressed alleged doubt on the part of Washington about Tehran’s “willingness” to “come back into compliance” with the JCPOA, according to Press TV.

By resuming “compliance”, Blinken was referring to the likelihood of Iran’s reversing the remedial nuclear measures.

Source: Iran Daily