Former Iranian FM Zarif defends Rouhani’s administration efforts to clinch nuclear deal

Iran’s former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has once again defended the 2015 nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, under which Iran accepted some restrictions on its atomic program in exchange for sanctions removal.

Zarif criticized those who decline to refer to the talks that led to the deal as “JCPOA negotiations” and prefer to call them “sanctions removal talks”.

The former foreign minister said this is the same agreement that the critics of the previous Iranian administration 20 times claimed they would bury it after taking office.

Zarif added, “I wish they were sincere and called it JCPOA”.

He noted that at the beginning of the Biden administration, he and former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s team were able to return the US to the nuclear deal.

The former top diplomat of Iran also said had he started the JCPOA revival talks on his own, he would have “been torn into pieces”, but the resuscitation of the 2015 atomic deal was the decision of the establishment.

The Iran nuclear deal plunged into disarray after the US left it in 2018 under former president Donald Trump who immediately afterwards reinstated anti-Iran sanctions.

This forced Iran to take retaliatory measures by gradually reducing its commitments under JCPOA.

The Raisi administration tried several times to revive the deal after taking office, but to no avail.

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