Russia: US maximum pressure led to Iran nuclear advancement

“Any new US administration needs to learn from the strategic mistakes of the past. Isn’t it clear that the maximum pressure resulted in an enormous advancement of the Iranian nuclear programme? Is there any irresponsible politician in the US to repeat this catastrophic exercise?” Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador at the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

China has recently announced, the United States as the culprit of the current Iranian nuclear crisis, should thoroughly rectify its erroneous policy of maximum pressure on Tehran.

On Wednesday, a senior Iranian diplomat said negotiations are slated to resume in Vienna on November 29, on the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“In a phone conversation with Mr. Enrique Mora (the EU representative in the Vienna talks), we agreed to resume the negotiations on November 29 aimed at lifting the illegal and inhumane [US] sanctions,” tweeted Ali Baqeri, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs, who is also Tehran’s top nuclear negotiator.

The two diplomats had already agreed to resume talks between Iran and the 4+1 group after November.

The US unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA under former President Donald Trump in 2018 and re-imposed the sanctions as part of its policy of “maximum pressure” targeting the Islamic Republic.

Its European allies in the agreement, namely the UK, France, and Germany, bowed down to the American pressure and started toeing the sanctions line as closely as possible.

The talks began earlier this year to examine the potential of the US’s return to the JCPOA, and the reversal of a set of nuclear countermeasures that Iran has been taking in reaction to the Western allies’ non-commitment to the deal.

The negotiations, however, halted in the run-up to Iran’s presidential elections in June.