Iranian President Raisi checks nuclear deals

Iran’s newly elected president has signalled that his government will take a tougher line with negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers after his victory at the polls delivered hardliners full control over all arms of the state.

Conservative clergy and Attorney General Ibrahim Reisi told reporters that his government would not “negotiate for the sake of negotiation” and ruled out the possibility of meeting with US President Joe Biden.

“Our foreign policy did not start with JCPOA [the nuclear deal] And it will not end with JCPOA,” Raisi told reporters at the first press conference after a landslide victory on Friday. “We will support any negotiations that are in our national interest. But we will not link the economic situation and people’s livelihood to these talks. .. We will not delay the negotiation. “

However, he suggested that his government, which will take office in August, will work on the dying agreement. Analysts said that lifting the sanctions is vital to Lai Xi’s hopes to relieve the economic pressure on Iranians.

With more than half of the voters staying at home, his victory was affected by the lowest turnout in the presidential election since the 1979 revolution.

Biden has stated that if Iran re-complied with the agreement after significantly increasing its nuclear activities in the past two years, he would rejoin the agreement unilaterally abandoned by the Trump administration in 2018. The Islamic regime insists that all U.S. sanctions must first be lifted — and the sanctions lifted must be verified — before it can resume its commitment.

“It was the United States that violated the JCPOA,” Raisi said. “I insist on telling the United States that you promised to lift sanctions, but you did not. Go back to the past and fulfill your promises.”

As the creator of the agreement, the government of outgoing President Hassan Rouhani has been negotiating with the remaining signatories of the agreement-Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia-for months. , Paving the way for the United States to return and lift sanctions. The United States has always been an observer of the talks, but it has not directly participated.

When asked if his government is willing to negotiate directly with the Biden administration, Reisi did not give a clear answer. Instead, he said: “My serious proposal to the United States… is to show honesty by lifting sanctions.” .

After Trump withdrew from the agreement and imposed waves of sanctions on Iran, the Iranian economy fell into a deep recession. The punitive measures weakened the ability to export oil, the country is the country’s main source of hard currency, and pushed the inflation rate to over 46% when the rial plummeted. The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the economic recession.

Raisi, who is widely regarded as supported by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that Iran’s support for militant groups throughout the region and the development of its missile program “have no room for negotiation.”

The Biden administration faces pressure from the United States and Israel and its Arab partners Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to expand any agreement with Iran to include these issues. They say Tehran has destabilized the region and threatened their safety. Iran countered that its support for the militia and its missile arsenal is a vital deterrent. Khamenei decides any major foreign policy issues.

Raisy was sanctioned by the Trump administration in 2019, and he also refuted allegations that he oversaw the abuse of power by the judiciary, saying that his records prove that he is a “defender” of human rights.

Allegations of the incoming president’s human rights record may further complicate Iran’s relations with the West. “As a jurist, I have always defended people’s rights,” he said. “Human rights are of the utmost importance to my responsibility.”