For the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, efforts to save the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are at a crossroads. “In the next few weeks and months it will be decided whether the agreement can be saved – or not,” said Maas. He spoke after a video conference with the foreign ministers of Iran and the other signatory states France, Great Britain, Russia and China – the first consultation in this context since the UN General Assembly in September 2019.
With a view to the impending inauguration of US President-elect Joe Biden, Maas said it was now up to Iran to keep the arms control agreement alive. “The opportunity that now presents itself, this last time window must not be lost,” said the minister in the direction of Tehran. Most recently, the Islamic Republic tightened its course of deliberately violating the conditions. To enable a rapprochement between the USA and Iran under Biden, “there must now be no further tactical maneuvers, of which we have seen too many recently,” warned Maas.
New momentum from Biden?
The impending change of power in Washington could now revive the agreement. Because the future US president has indicated a return to the treaty, should Iran again comply with the terms of the agreement. However, Biden wants to expand it to include further demands on Tehran.
Federal Foreign Minister Maas emphasized that it is about much more than just saving the agreement. “Behind this is the question of whether the decades-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear program can be permanently resolved by negotiation or not. that all the conflicts in the region will be made even more threatening by the danger of nuclear armament and will be even more difficult to contain. “
“The best instrument we have”
This scenario must also cause great concern for Germany, “because the security of Israel is of the highest priority for us,” Maas emphasized. The Vienna nuclear agreement is “still the best instrument we have for these goals,” said the SPD politician. It is important that at the virtual ministerial meeting on Monday, all member states – including Iran – once again committed to the agreement. “We Europeans have also emphatically emphasized that we cannot stop at mere confession.”
A view of the only Iranian nuclear reactor in Bushehr (archive image)
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In 2015, Iran signed the international nuclear agreement with Germany, China, France, Russia, Great Britain and the USA. Its purpose is to ensure that Tehran does not acquire the skills to build an atomic bomb. In return, the Islamic Republic was promised to ease sanctions. Under President Donald Trump, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed new sanctions against Tehran. For its part, Iran gradually withdrew from the treaty. With the newly elected US President Biden, there are now prospects of rapprochement.
Sarif calls for an end to the sanctions
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif assured that his country would return to the nuclear deal as soon as the US did it. Iran is mainly concerned with ending the US punitive measures. “The end of the sanctions must be felt by the people,” wrote Sarif on Twitter. In the past two years, Trump’s sanctions would have plunged his country into the worst economic crisis in its history.
At the same time, the head of department denied Tehran’s complicity in the misery. Not Iran, but the three European contracting parties would not have fulfilled their obligations in the deal after the US exit. Therefore they are partly to blame for the failure of the nuclear deal. The Europeans, along with the USA, are also jointly responsible for the crises in the Middle East with their arms deliveries to the regional states, said the Iranian chief diplomat.
kle / ehl (afp, dpa, rtr)
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