Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who represented his country in forging the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, on Wednesday welcomed the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States and said that if the new president-elect wishes to revive the JCPOA, he would have to fulfill the US commitments under the deal and lift the sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, Zarif said that “by pulling Washington out of the JCPOA, Trump solely failed to benefit from the deal. This was the mistake Trump and his associates made. If Biden seeks to return to the JCPOA, he will have to fulfill US commitments under the deal and lift the sanctions.”
Ever the realist, Zarif emphasized: “We have to accept the reality that Trump’s defeat was not a consequence of his administration’s foreign policy. He failed to secure a reelection win due to the US internal issues, such as economic problems and the rapid coronavirus spread.”
The FM added, however, that “naturally, during Biden’s term in office, the US and Europe would have a more rational relationship with each other. The US would adopt less unilateral approaches although it has never completely abandoned such policies.”
Zarif then mixed his observation with some wishful thinking, saying, “The extent of Biden’s success or failure on the international scene would depend on his efforts to adapt himself and the US with the transition of power in the world from the West to the East, a global development the unfolding of which has been expedited by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any attempt aimed at preventing such a power transition will be doomed to failure, a result achieved by Biden’s predecessors.”
That’s probably not going to happen on the new president’s watch, although the vector for Chinese global supremacy has been in place for decades now.
Zarif then told his interviewers: “Allow me to mention a few points. First, Trump’s policy of withdrawal from the JCPOA and ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran resulted in a failure. This does not mean that we benefited from the policy. It implies that Trump failed to achieve the desired result. We faced great pressure as a consequence of such a strategy. Although we defeated the US, the domestic economy suffered losses under Trump’s sanctions. However, the reality is that the US policy ended in a failure and its continuation will be doomed to more failures.”
He continued: “Second, the US has two positions. It is a member of both the JCPOA and the United Nations. Although Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA, he did not withdraw the country from the UN. Whether under Biden or Trump, the US must remain committed to Article 25 of the UN Charter, mandating the member states to accept and carry out the decisions of the UN Security Council. Thus, as a UN member and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the US cannot say the Resolution 2231 — a July 20, 2015 resolution endorsing the JCPOA on the peaceful nuclear program of Iran — is illegal. By pulling Washington out of the JCPOA, Trump solely failed to benefit from the deal. This was the mistake Trump and his associates made. If Biden seeks to return to the JCPOA, he will have to fulfill US commitments under the deal and lift the sanctions.”
Now some facts: as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has been a prominent voice calling for “hard-headed diplomacy” with Iran. He also has called for the implementation of “coordinated international sanctions” on Iran, adding “we should complement this pressure by presenting a detailed, positive vision for U.S.–Iran relations if Iran does the right thing.”
So, the president-elect’s style may be vastly different from President Trump’s, but their views on sanctions are remarkably close.
On the other hand, in 2007, Biden voted against a measure to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, and wrote that “war with Iran is not just a bad option. It would be a disaster.” In fact, Biden threatened impeachment proceedings against President Bush if he were to start a war with Iran without Congressional approval.
Then, in a 2008 interview, Biden explained that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was indeed a terrorist organization, but explained that he voted against the measure to add it to the list of terror groups out of concern that the Bush administration would misuse the measure to justify a military attack against Iran.
If you recall, between 2003 and 2008, the Bush administration was a bit hyperactive following the September 11, 2001 attack on American shore, and voices within the administration as well as Senator John McCain were calling to bomb Iran, despite the dubious evidence regarding its support for Al Qaeda.
But under President Obama, Vice President Biden vigorously defended JCPOA, and later criticized Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, calling the Trump administration’s Iran strategy “a self-inflicted disaster,” pointing out in 2019 that Iran had “only gotten more aggressive” since Trump “unilaterally withdrew from the hard-won nuclear agreement that the Obama-Biden Administration negotiated.”
Biden has explained his zigzag position on Iran saying, “I have no illusions about Iran. The regime has long sponsored terrorism and threatened our interests. It continues to detain American citizens. They’ve ruthlessly killed hundreds of protesters, and they should be held accountable for their actions. But there is a smart way to counter them, and a self-defeating way. Trump’s approach is demonstrably the latter. The only way out of this crisis is through diplomacy — clear-eyed, hard-nosed diplomacy grounded in strategy, that’s not about one-off decisions or one-upsmanship.”
Finally, Biden is on the record as stating he would reenter and act to strengthen the nuclear agreement once Iran is in compliance, which would include enhancing the sanctions part of the deal.
Now you know everything.