Analyst: JCPOA can’t satisfy Iran’s needs

An Iranian political affairs expert says although the path to restore Iran’s nuclear deal with the West is bumpy, even reaching an agreement to revive the moribund deal will not serve the Islamic Republic’s national interests under current circumstances.

Kourosh Ahmadi told ILNA that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) got off to a rocky start in 2015 as it failed to lift many of the US-led Western sanctions on Iran back then.

He said Iranian authorities are not optimistic about the nuclear deal as it has failed to help Iran ‘benefit completely’ from the deal and draw foreign investments due to the murky atmosphere surrounding the agreement.

Iran and other parties to the JCPOA have held several rounds of inconclusive talks to restore the agreement after Washington unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018.

Tehran has blamed Washington’s ‘excessive demands’ and ‘unfounded accusations’ for the impasse.

The political analyst warned that Washington is setting the stage to turn the tables on Iran in an upcoming meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors by adopting a new anti-Iran resolution and sending Tehran’s case to the United Nations Security Council.

However, he said a prolonged conflict in Ukraine could change the course of Western action against Iran to opt for keeping the JCPOA in limbo, as Washington and its European allies cannot afford a new tension.

Ahmadi said the US has launched a new smear campaign against Iran by claiming that Tehran supplies Russia with drones in its war on Ukraine, an allegation rejected by the Islamic Republic.

He highlighted that the accusations are made while Iran casted a vote of abstention on a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the Russian war on Ukraine, sending a clear message that Iran is preserving a neutral stance on the war.

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