US official: No guarantee next government would not leave Iran deal

A senior US official says Washington will not give Tehran assurances that a future US administration would not withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement again.

“There is no such thing as a guarantee, and I think Iran knows it and we know it,” the official told reporters during a press briefing on Thursday.

“We have no guarantee; they have no guarantee. That’s the way the JCPOA is built, that if one side violated, the other side would – its remedy would be to take countermanding steps,” the official said, referring to the nuclear deal by its official acronym.

The unnamed official further said the best guarantee is to get back into the deal and to implement it faithfully.

Washington has so far declined to offer Iran guarantees that a future US administration would not repeat the mistake of the Donald Trump administration, which abandoned the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018 and imposed harsh rounds of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The sixth round of the talks between the remaining parties to JCPOA adjourned on Sunday due to the negotiators’ need for further consultations with their capitals.

UN Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday described the US removal of the Iran sanctions as an appropriate measure and called on Washington to remove the sanctions and extend "waivers" on Iran’s oil sales.

In his eleventh report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, Guterres voiced satisfaction over the diplomatic efforts in the Austrian capital regarding the full implementation of the JCPOA and Resolution 2231 that endorses the nuclear deal, IRNA reported.

He also said such moves are necessary so that the Iranian people would be able to enjoy the economic benefits of the JCPOA.

Russia envoy: Iran may react even tougher if US leaves JCPOA again after deal revival

Russia says Iran may react even tougher if the US makes the mistake of leaving the Iran deal again after the JCPOA revival.

The US has promised to rejoin the deal and remove the anti-Iran sanctions, but so far it has failed to accept the removal of all post-JCPOA sanctions that run counter to the deal’s promises to Tehran.

The senior US official also said Washington may need to rethink its approach toward Iran if the Vienna talks fail to resolve the remaining differences over the implementation of the JCPOA.

“We still have serious differences ... over the host of issues, whether it’s the nuclear steps that Iran needs to take to come back into compliance, the sanctions relief that the US would be offering or the sequence of steps that both sides would be taking,” the official said.

“This process is not going to be open forever,” added the official. “We do have differences and if we can’t bridge them in the foreseeable future, I think we are going to have to regroup and figure out how we move ahead.”

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