Pompeo claims Iran keen to return to nuclear talks for sanctions relief

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has tried to defend during his final days in office the illegal "maximum pressure campaign" by the Trump administration against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In an outrageous statement on Friday, he claimed that Tehran "desperately" wants to return to the nuclear talks and get sanctions relief from Washington.

"We know our campaign is working because now the Iranians are desperately signaling their willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief," Pompeo said while addressing the virtual conference, Manama Dialogue, hosted by Bahrain.

The top American diplomat did not elaborate on what signals Washington had seen.

Warning against going easy on Tehran during the possible negotiations, Pompeo said, "In the event that they come to the table, and are only willing to talk about turning off a few nuclear centrifuges for a few months or a few years, the world should not find that satisfactory... We ought to not cut short negotiation.”

US President Donald Trump, a hawkish critic of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), unilaterally withdrew Washington from the agreement in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.

The US unleashed the so-called maximum pressure campaign and targeted the Iranian nation with draconian restrictive measures in order to bring it to its knees, but Iran's economy keeps humming and is getting back on its feet.

Following its much-criticized exit, Washington has been attempting to prevent the remaining signatories -- the UK, France China and Russia plus Germany -- from abiding by their commitments and thus kill the historic agreement, which is widely viewed as a fruit of international diplomacy.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reasserted Iran’s position that its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is not open to renegotiation and that the US has to observe the agreement and the UN resolution that endorses it.

Nuclear deal won’t be renegotiated, US must respect UN Resolution endorsing accord, Zarif tells Rome forum

Zarif reasserts Iran’s position that its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers is not open to renegotiation.

Zarif advised that the US end its “grave breach” of the JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that has endorsed the nuclear deal, because Washington “has walked out of the nuclear agreement, but did not walk out of the United Nations.”

The top Iranian diplomat also said if the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden continues to ask Iran to come and renegotiate the JCPOA, it would be walking in the same “rogue” steps as Trump’s team.

Biden has previously expressed a conditional desire to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.

Joe Biden: I will return US to Iran nuclear deal

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says if elected he will return the United States to the Iran nuclear deal as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.

Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year after Washington's unilateral pullout from the deal, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.

But as the European parties failed to do so, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Iran took five steps in scaling back its obligations, among them abandoning operational limitations on its nuclear industry, including with regard to the capacity and level of uranium enrichment.

All those measures were adopted after informing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) beforehand, with the agency's inspectors present on the ground in Iran.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk