New Participants in JCPOA Negotiations Rejected

EghtesadOnline: A senior Iranian diplomat on Saturday rejected any new negotiations or changes to the participants of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, after French President Emmanuel Macron said any new talks should include Saudi Arabia.

News ID: ۷۸۵۸۹۰

01 February 2021

“The nuclear accord is a multilateral international agreement ratified by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which is non-negotiable and parties to it are clear and unchangeable,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, ISNA reported.

Macron said any new negotiations on world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran would be very “strict” and should include Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya reported on Friday.

It said Macron told a media briefing that included the Saudi-owned channel that a very short time remained to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

Tehran says its nuclear program has no military dimension and is totally for civilian applications.

The Islamic Republic began going beyond the deal’s limits on uranium enrichment activity in response to a US withdrawal from the pact in 2018 under then-president, Donald Trump, who then reimposed sweeping economic sanctions on Tehran.

The new administration of US President Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the deal but only after Tehran resumes full compliance with its terms. On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would not reverse an acceleration of its nuclear program before Washington lifts sanctions.

Saudi Arabia and its ally, the UAE, have said Persian Gulf Arab states should be involved in any talks this time, which they say should also address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for allies around the Middle East.

Macron stressed the need to avoid what he called the mistake of excluding other countries in the region when the 2015 deal was negotiated, according to Al Arabiya.

Saudi Arabia had supported Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.