Biden says he will not lift sanctions against Iran to bring the country back to the negotiating table

“No,” Biden said when asked by CBS ‘Norah O’Donnell if he would undertake the move to begin negotiations, and nodded when she asked in a newly released interview clip whether the country should first enrich uranium. The interview will be broadcast in full later on Sunday on CBS.

In the past, the president has said that the US will rejoin the nuclear deal in Iran, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, once Tehran fully complies with the treaty. Iran’s view is that since the US left the agreement in 2018, Washington must take the first step by removing the crippling sanctions that former President Donald Trump has imposed liberally on Iran’s leaders, individuals and the economy, and for terrorism. . Iran has increasingly breached its obligations under the nuclear deal after the Trump administration withdrew the US from it.

“It is very clear that it was the United States that left the agreement. It was the United States that violated the agreement. It was the United States that punished any country that was respectful and complied with the agreement,” Zarif said. said on GPS. . “” It is for the United States to return to the agreement to fulfill its obligations. Iran has never abandoned the agreement. “

On December 2, Tehran’s parliament passed legislation requiring significant increases in its core activities at regular intervals if it does not meet Iran’s demands for easing sanctions, including its banking and oil sectors.

Nuclear officials also increased the enrichment capacity at the Natanz plant. And on Monday, Iran broadcast video footage of what it said was the “most powerful” rocket engine using a system capable of launching long-range missiles that could endanger US allies in Europe and the Middle East or the United States itself.

There have been a spate of behind-the-scenes actions taken by the Biden government, including building a team with different views on Tehran and issuing legislators.

“Today’s meeting is part of an ongoing policy review. It is not decisive,” Psaki wrote on Friday. “There are no pending policy announcements. We will consult extensively with Congress and partners before making decisions.”

Talks on the escalation in Tehran are also taking place between allies, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters during a briefing on Thursday. He said the US was in talks with European Union allies over a strategy towards Iran and believed it would yield a ‘united front’.

“We are currently actively working with the European Union, especially the three members of the P5 + 1; Germany, the United Kingdom and France. We are talking to them at different levels of our government, the consultations, I think, will be a united ‘front when it comes to our strategy towards Iran and the handling of diplomacy around the nuclear issue, and I just do not want to get ahead of where it will end up,’ Sullivan said.

Biden has been discussing Iran with foreign leaders since taking office, according to lectures given by the White House.

Zarif, speaking to CNN’s Zakaria on Sunday before announcing the president’s comments on Iran, said Biden had two choices.

“Now it’s clear, this is a decision that President Biden and his advisers must make,” he said. “Whether they want to break with President Trump’s policy or whether they want to build on his failures. If they want to build on his failures, they will only fail because of them.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story was incorrectly quoted by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif about the Iran deal.