Biden says US ready to fully comply with nuclear deal, if Tehran does likewise
President Joe Biden has pledged to return the US to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
The commitment answers one of Iran’s major demands during the Vienna talks.
Mr Biden, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and the UK’s Boris Johnson released a joint statement after the US president met the European leaders.
“We welcome President Biden’s clearly demonstrated commitment to return the US to full compliance … and to stay in full compliance, so long as Iran does the same,” it said.
Mr Biden said at the G20 in Rome that the US was suffering from the decisions of the Trump administration.
“We’re continuing to suffer from the very bad decisions President Trump made to pull out of the JCPOA,” he said.
The Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018.
Talks aimed at resurrecting the deal were put on hold in June because of the Iranian presidential election.
Since the US exited the deal, Iran has increased its uranium enrichment and blocked IAEA inspections at its Natanz plant.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has taken a tougher stance towards talks, calling on the US to first lift sanctions as a show of goodwill.
On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Mr Biden could issue an executive order to rejoin the defunct JCPOA.
“It is enough for Biden to issue an executive order tomorrow and they announce they are rejoining the pact from the point where his predecessor left the deal,” Mr Amirabdollahian said.
“If there is a serious will in Washington to return to the deal, there is no need for all these negotiations at all.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said the US was “absolutely in lockstep” with the UK, Germany and France on getting Iran back into a nuclear deal, but said it was unclear if Tehran was willing to rejoin the talks in a “meaningful way”.
Iran has expressed concern over the possibility of the US leaving the deal a second time. It is not a signed treaty by the US Congress and not binding for future administrations.