[News] Biden and Iran ... an American envoy reveals Washington's "new" policy

[HiTLeR]

 

On Thursday, the US special envoy for Iran affirmed the continuation of the sanctions campaign against Tehran under the Biden administration, even as the president-elect pledged to return the United States to the nuclear deal with world powers.

 

Elliott Abrams, who also serves as the US special representative for Venezuela, said sanctions targeting Iran over its human rights violations, ballistic missile program and regional influence "will continue."

 

He added that this, in addition to the constant scrutiny by United Nations inspectors and American partners in the Middle East, would maintain this pressure.

 

Iran now possesses much more uranium than it is permitted under the agreement, from which President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018, and the Middle East is also suffering from tensions in Tehran and Washington, which pushed the two countries to the brink of war at the beginning of the year.

 

"Even if we go back (to the agreement) and even if the Iranians are ready to come back," Abrams said in an interview with The Associated Press. With this newly enriched uranium, you will not have really solved these basic questions about whether Iran will be allowed to violate the long-term commitments it has made to the international community. ”

 

Iran's mission to the United Nations has not yet responded to a request for comment on Abrams' remarks, noting that Iranian politicians have increasingly discussed the possibility of the United States returning to the agreement that restricted Tehran to enrich uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

 

Abrams replaced Brian Hook as the envoy on Iran, who announced that he had left his post in August after facing Trump's maximum pressure campaign.

 

Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, which would have been less than 300 kilograms under the agreement, is more than 2,440 kilograms (5,380 pounds), according to the most recent report by UN inspectors.

 

This is likely to be enough material to build at least two nuclear weapons, experts say, if Iran chooses to continue working on the bomb.

 

Iran is enriching uranium up to 4.5 percent, which is higher than permitted under the agreement, but still well below the levels of nuclear weapons manufacture of 90 percent.

 

Tehran abandoned all restrictions on uranium enrichment months after Trump withdrew from the deal, even as the agreement's other international partners - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany - tried to save it in vain.

 

Meanwhile, Iran began construction work at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility underground after the outbreak of a fire and explosion, which it described as a "sabotage" act at a factory for assembling advanced centrifuges last July.

 

Abrams described the construction as "another Iranian challenge" to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is still carrying out inspections at Iran's nuclear sites, and condemned Iran's slowdown in allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate a suspicious site outside Tehran, where enriched uranium particles were discovered.

 

Iran has consistently emphasized the peacefulness of its nuclear program, but the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran “carried out activities related to the production of a nuclear bomb” in an “organized program” until the end of 2003.

 

Abrams stated that Iran is seeking to use US citizens who are still being held in its prisons, as bargaining chips in future negotiations.