WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2021) American allies in the middle East stand ready to engage more with Iran economically if Tehran chooses a diplomatic path over confrontation and returns to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said on Monday.
"(T)hey (US allies in the region) made clear that if this diplomatic path was pursued and we could reach an agreement, they wanted to engage more deeply with Iran on the economic front, but that could not be done if Iran were not in compliance with the JCPOA because, by definition, US sanctions remain on the books," Malley said during a press briefing.
The JCPOA can become a platform for future discussions and diplomacy between Iran and regional partners if the mutual return to the agreement is reached, Malley noted.
In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group, which includes the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom plus Germany and with the European Union. The agreement stipulated that Iran must scale back its nuclear program and reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal was inked.
In 2018, the United States withdrew unilaterally from the JCPOA and implemented comprehensive sanctions against Iran, prompting the latter to largely abandon its own obligations under the accord.
Since April, Vienna has been hosting talks aimed at preventing the Iran nuclear deal from failing altogether. The sixth round of the talks finished on June 20 and the negotiations have since hit a deadlock.
