Iran’s former foreign minister and current senior aide to the new president, Javad Zarif, has endorsed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s stance on upholding a nuclear law that has stalled negotiations with the West.
In a tweet on Monday Zarif said, “Irrespective of personal views on our Parliament’s Dec 2020 legislation on nuclear negotiations, it is the law of the land and must be complied with.“
Khamenei had asserted on Sunday that "Some people protested and found fault with the Strategic Action law, which is absolutely unfounded. This law was very much the right thing to do,". He was referring to Iran’s "Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Iranian Nation’s Interests," a law mandating the government to increase uranium enrichment and reduce UN inspections if the US does not lift sanctions.
Previously, Zarif, speaking at an election round table on June 18, had noted that both Israel and the Parliament's strategic law were significant factors preventing US President Joe Biden from returning to the JCPOA. However, on Monday he insisted, that the West must “remedy” its behavior and “guarantee Iran’s unhindered benefit from the deal,” referring to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement.
The Strategic Action legislation was initiated in November 2020 after the election of Joe Biden, who had already pledged to return to the JCPOA during his election campaign. Iran devised the legislation apparently as a pressure lever against the United States, because it mandated a higher level of uranium enrichment and less inspections by the UN nuclear watchdog, IAEA, as negotiations were about to begin in 2021.
One year of talks in Vienna between the JCPOA participants, plus the US on the sidelines, failed in March 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
More recently the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has criticized Iran’s nuclear activities, raising concerns about the program's peacefulness. The IAEA reported that Iran has stockpiled large amounts of highly enriched uranium, with Raphael Grossi saying that Iran is "weeks not months" from a nuclear weapon.
On Monday, Deputy Minister for Legal and International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reza Najafi said: "The other party [US] is not ready to seriously engage in negotiations due to internal issues and elections. With the formation of the new government in Iran and the positions announced by the President-elect, these negotiations will continue."
The foreign ministry official went on to say, “Considering recent developments in the United States and Biden's resignation, we need to see what US policy will be.”
Iran is apparently hopeful that with the election of Masoud Pezeshkian, presented as a “reformist,” nuclear talks would resume leading to some reduction in US sanctions that have crippled the economy. However, Washington announced earlier this month that it was not willing to resume talks, seeing no significant change with Pezeshkian’s election.
The US and its European allies, France, Germany and Britain have accused Iran of frequently changing positions during the talks and presenting new demands every time the negotiations seemed to be nearing a conclusion.