Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has demanded “guarantees” from the US that it will not back out of a nuclear deal if it is revived ahead of his first visit to the United Nations.
As Western hopes of restoring the landmark 2015 deal with world powers dwindle, the hardliner said in a US TV interview that he still stands behind a “good and fair deal”.
But he said, “It has to be permanent. There have to be guarantees.”
“We cannot trust the Americans because of the behavior we have already seen from them. So there’s no trust when there’s no guarantee,” he told CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
Former President Barack Obama brokered the deal, under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear work in exchange for promises of an easing of sanctions.
Three years later, Donald Trump withdrew and again imposed sweeping sanctions. President Joe Biden supports a return, but Iran’s demand for guarantees has become a sticking point as the Democratic administration says it’s impossible in the US system to tell what a future president would do.
But Raisi said Trump’s withdrawal shows US promises are “meaningless”.
The parties to the 2015 deal – which also included Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – saw it as the best way to prevent the Islamic Republic from building a nuclear bomb – a goal Tehran has always denied.
Raisi succeeded last year Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate who spoke with Obama over the phone when he visited New York for the United Nations.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told AFP last week that negotiations on Iran’s rejoining the deal have stalled after the parties’ proposals “converged”.
Earlier in August, a senior European Union official said progress was being made on removing obstacles, including guarantees that the US would not fail a deal again.
Three days later, Borrell presented a “final” text of the contract.
A report by the United Nations nuclear regulatory agency earlier this month that it could not certify Iran’s nuclear program as “entirely peaceful” has hampered diplomatic efforts to revive the deal.
Iran is sticking to a requirement that the International Atomic Energy Agency to revive the 2015 deal must complete an investigation launched when the agency found traces of nuclear material at three undeclared sites.
