JCPOA implementation shows diplomacy works: Commentator

Press TV has interviewed Nader Bagherzadeh, a political commentator in Irvine, to discuss the announcement made by European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of lifting sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What did you think about the joint statement read by the two officials?

Bagherzadeh: This was a great speech indicating that Ms Mogherini has basically said all the sanctions that have been removed by the Europe and United States is removing the nuclear sanctions and starting probably, allowing civilian airplane parts and perhaps even civilian planes to be sold to Iran.

Iran has satisfied its side of the bargain. Mr. Amano’s report today which we were expecting basically took place showing that Iran has done all those important steps and really what it shows is that diplomacy works. I mean this is the second or third time that diplomacy has worked. We had the American soldiers released within less than 24 hours. This probably would not have been possible if there was not a very good rapport between Mr. Zarif and Mr. Kerry.

So all indications that all 14 months of effort and work by both sides or all sides I should say finally get results.

Press TV: Well there were concerns raised from different countries in the region regarding the JCPOA and the lifting of sanctions against Iran and fortunately Iran has according to the IAEA complied [with] all its commitments under the JCPOA deal. What kind of a response is this to countries that did raise concern about Iran trying to develop nuclear weapons, something Iran has denied from the offset?   

Bagherzadeh: They did not want to see Iran to become economically powerful in the region because it is a very large country, it has 80 million people, highly educated as compared to some of the surrounding neighbors and they did not want to see another competitor, a fierce competitor in that domain, not militarily, economically probably as well.

So I think they have to accept this. This is moving forward. Both Europeans and the American officials have accepted this, the organization of IAEA has accepted it, there is no reason to complain, they have to move along and accept this, that those days are gone and Iran is part of that economy of the world in a very strong way and the results would show, probably bring more stability into the area.    

Press TV: Well what are the sentences in this joint statement that this deal, the proper implementation of this deal will be a key contribution to improved regional and international peace stability and security in the world? How much do you agree with this statement?

Bagherzadeh: Sure. If Iran is part of the equation in discussion for Syria and other hot spots in that area, definitely the cooperation will increase. We see more and more everyday that there is more communication between Iran and the West and I think we will see the benefits of that and definitely economically there would be many companies that would start negotiating and engaging with Iran. This is a very great market for many Western countries to get engaged and start their businesses, work with the Iranian businessmen, use the talent pool of Iran which is unprecedented in that whole area.  

Press TV: Well since Iran from the very beginning had actually stated that its nuclear program is mainly for civilian purposes, what do you think, what kind of achievement do you think this is considered for Iran?

Bagherzadeh: This basically shows that there was truthfulness about the type of nuclear activity that was going on at least according to the reports that Mr. Amano has given - the previous report and the current one.

And it shows that Iran has engaged with the agency, the international agency monitoring the nuclear material and there is a long-term engagement with the additional protocol as was mentioned in the statement and the news report. So I think the file has to be normalized, it has to come to a regular file for a country which is a member of NPT and I would expect that the success and progress of this agreement will hopefully help others to take a leadership and have a similar agreement with the agency and have a nuclear-free Middle East.

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