Iran foreign minister: ‘Ready to discuss how US can re-enter’ nuclear deal

“The situation will improve in the next few months,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif. “Biden can lift all sanctions with three executive orders.”

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Iran is ready to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal if U.S. President-elect Joe Biden ends sanctions on Tehran, said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“We are ready to discuss how the United States can re-enter the accord,” Zarif told Iranian state media. “The situation will improve in the next few months. Biden can lift all sanctions with three executive orders.”

Biden served as vice-president during the administration of Barack Obama, who entered into the nuclear deal.

“This can be done automatically, and with no need to set conditions: the United States carries out its duties under (Security Council Resolution) 2231 (lift sanctions) and we will carry out our commitments under the nuclear deal,” said Zarif in the state media video.

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, re-imposing harsh sanctions on Iran.

Unlike President Hassan Rouhani, Zarif did not demand compensation from the U.S. for re-imposing the sanctions.

“With their illegal and inhuman sanctions and terrorist actions, the Americans have inflicted 150 billion dollars of damage on the people of Iran,” Rouhani said in a televised speech in September.

“We’ve never before seen such an extent of savagery … The address for Iranian people’s curses and hatred is the White House.”

Last week, a bombshell report by nuclear watchdog group the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed Iran has further violated its 2015 nuclear deal by stockpiling 2,442.9 kilograms of enriched uranium.

According to the IAEI report, the Iranian government said that Iran’s goal is to “concentrate” all its enrichment research and development – a phrase which is almost exclusively used for advanced centrifuges – to an underground plant.

The report also explained that uranium particles were found in areas that had not previously been declared to the IAEI.