Biden: It’s ‘not time to give up’ on saving JCPOA

“It’s not time to give up,” Biden stated at a press conference to mark his first year in the White House on Wednesday.

“There is some progress being made,” he continued.

“P5+1 are on the same page but it remains to be seen,” Biden noted in a reference to the nations taking part in the negotiations in Vienna.

Talks to restore the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers — United States, France, Britain, Russia, China, and Germany — began last year but stopped in June as Iran elected President Ebrahim Raisi. The talks resumed in November.

In 2018, Washington pulled out of the pact and reinstated sanctions under the so-called ‘maximum pressure campaign’ against Tehran, effectively depriving Iran of the deal’s benefits by forcing third parties to stop doing business with Iran.

Iran remained patient for an entire year, after which it began to take incremental steps away from its nuclear obligations, especially after Europeans failed to salvage the deal under the US pressure.

Iran insists that the nuclear talks must lead to the removal of all American sanctions that were imposed against Tehran following Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the landmark agreement in May 2018. Tehran has also demanded credible guarantees that Washington will not abandon the deal again.