WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration said on Thursday that it is ready to join talks with Iran and world powers to discuss a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, in a sharp rejection of the “ maximum pressure campaign ” former president Donald Trump who tried the Islamic Republic.
The administration also took two steps with the United Nations to restore policy to what it was before Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018. The combined actions were immediately criticized by Iranian hawks and are likely to cause concern among Israel and the Arab Gulf states.
In addition to a willingness to speak to Iran, the government also reversed Trump’s decision that all UN sanctions against Iran had been reinstated. And it relaxed severe restrictions on the domestic travel of Iranian diplomats posted to the United Nations.
The Foreign Office announced the move following talks between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his British, French and German counterparts, and as Biden prepares to participate, albeit virtually, in his first major international events with world leaders.
The announcement came a day before Biden would speak to leaders of the Group of Seven Industrialized Democracies and address the annual Munich Security Conference later in the day. In both, Biden is expected to discuss his commitment to multilateral diplomacy and his desire to undo the damage Trump’s positions may have caused over the past four years.
In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US would accept an invitation from the European Union to attend a meeting of the participants – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, together with Iran – in the original nuclear agreement.
“The United States would accept an invitation from the High Representative of the European Union to attend a meeting of the P5 + 1 and Iran to discuss a diplomatic way forward with Iran’s nuclear program,” he said . The US has not attended a meeting of those participants since Trump withdrew from the deal and started steadily ramping up sanctions against Iran.
Such an invitation has not yet been sent, but is expected shortly, after Blinken’s talks with British, French and German Foreign Ministers.
Meanwhile, the United Nations administration informed the Security Council that it had withdrawn Trump’s appeal in September 2020 on the so-called “snapback” mechanism, insisting that all UN sanctions against Iran had been re-imposed. Those sanctions include a conventional arms embargo against Iran that was set to expire.
Trump’s determination had been vigorously contested by nearly all other UN members and left the US isolated from the world body. Thus, the reversal is unlikely to have any immediate practical effect, other than bringing the US back into line with the position of the vast majority of UN members, including some of its closest allies.
Acting US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Mills sent a letter to the Security Council saying that the United States is “withdrawing” three letters from the Trump administration that culminated in the September 19 announcement that the United States would renew UN sanctions against Tehran. because of his “significant breach” of his obligations.
Trump’s decision had been ignored by the rest of the Security Council and the world, and the vast majority of members of the 15-country council had called the action illegal because the US was no longer a member of the nuclear deal.
At the same time, officials said the government has imposed extremely strict restrictions on the travel of Iranian diplomats accredited to the United Nations. The Trump administration had imposed severe restrictions, essentially limiting them to their UN mission and UN headquarters in New York.
The most senior Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Texas’s Michael McCaul was quick to denounce the steps. “It is worrying that the Biden administration is already making concessions in an apparent effort to rejoin the flawed Iran deal,” he said. “The Trump administration created a leverage for President Biden on Iran – we shouldn’t waste that progress.”
Earlier Thursday, Blinken and his European counterparts had urged Iran to allow continued United Nations nuclear inspections and halt nuclear activities that have no credible civilian use. They warned that Iran’s actions could threaten delicate efforts to get the US back into the 2015 deal and end sanctions harming Iran’s economy.
Iran “is playing with fire,” said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who took part in talks in Paris with his British and French counterparts on Thursday. Blinken was present via a video conference.
Iran has said it will halt some of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspections of its nuclear facilities next week if the West fails to meet its own commitments under the 2015 deal. The accord has been unraveling since Trump pulled the US out of the accord.
Blinken reiterated that “if Iran is again in strict compliance with its obligations … the United States will do likewise,” said a joint statement following Thursday’s meeting that reflected closer transatlantic positions on Iran since President Joe Biden took office.
The diplomats noted “the dangerous nature of a decision to limit access to the IAEA, and urge Iran to consider the consequences of such serious action, especially at a time of renewed diplomatic opportunities.”
They said Iran’s decision to produce uranium that is up to 20% enriched and uranium metal has “no credible” civilian use.
The 2015 agreement aims to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Tehran denies looking for such an arsenal.
“We are the ones who have kept this agreement alive for the past few years, and now the point is to support the United States in taking the road back to the agreement,” Maas told reporters in Paris.
“The measures taken in Tehran and may be taken in the coming days are anything but helpful. They jeopardize the path of the Americans back to this agreement. The more pressure applied, the more politically difficult it will be to find a solution, ”he said.
Iran’s threats are “very worrying,” said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, stressing the need “to intervene again diplomatically to contain Iran, but also to bring it back into line.”
The diplomats also expressed concern about human rights violations in Iran and its ballistic missile program.
In Iran, President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday expressed hope that the Biden administration will rejoin the accord and lift the US sanctions that Washington has re-imposed under Trump, state television said.
Tehran has used its violations of the nuclear deal to put pressure on the remaining signatories – France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China – to give Iran more incentive to offset the crippling sanctions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of the European Council spoke with Rouhani this week to try to end the diplomatic deadlock. The head of the IAEA is scheduled to travel to Iran this weekend to find a solution that will allow the agency to continue inspections.
Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Angela Charlton and Masha Macpherson in Paris contributed.