Iran Rejects IAEA Chief's Call that New Agreement Needed after Biden Takes Office

Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday rejected the UN atomic watchdog chief’s suggestion that reviving Iran’s nuclear deal after a new U.S. administration comes to power would require striking a new agreement.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Rafael Grossi, who heads the IAEA that polices Iran’s compliance to the 2015 nuclear deal, said there had been too many breaches by Iran for the agreement to simply snap back into place when U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.

Biden has said the United States will rejoin the deal “if Iran resumes strict compliance.”

After President Donald Trump quit the deal in 2018 and re-imposed U.S. sanctions, Iran responded by breaching many of the deal’s restrictions.

“Presenting any assessment on how the commitments are implemented is absolutely beyond the mandate of the agency and should be avoided,” Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s ambassador to IAEA in Vienna, tweeted. “@iaeaorg played its part during negotiations on the JCPoA.”

Iranian President Hassan Rohani, architect of the 2015 nuclear deal with six powers, has repeatedly said Tehran’s nuclear steps were reversible if the United States lifted sanctions and fully respected the pact. Iran’s President said on Thursday he was certain the incoming U.S. administration will return to its nuclear deal commitments and lift crippling sanctions on his country. “I have no doubt that the three-year resistance of the Iranian people will persuade the future American government to return to its commitments and the sanctions will be broken,” Rohani said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei threw his support behind efforts to forge a diplomatic breakthrough with the incoming Biden administration and restore the 2015 nuclear deal. His statement sends a clear signal to Iranian hardliners not to stand in the way of talks with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office next month having pledged to rejoin the accord abandoned by Donald Trump. “If sanctions can be removed, we shouldn’t delay, not even for an hour,” Khamenei said Wednesday in comments almost identical to ones made this week by President Hassan Rohani. “I support the country’s officials as long as they are committed to the nation’s goals.” He also told authorities to remain deeply skeptical of the U.S. and “not to trust the enemy,” regardless of who is in the White House. - Reuters, Bloomberg