Tehran 0
12 March 2021

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan remarked that “diplomacy with Iran is ongoing, just not in a direct fashion at the moment. There are communications through the Europeans and through others that enable us to explain to the Iranians what our position is, with respect to the compliance-for-compliance approach, and to hear what their position is”. “We’re waiting, at this point, to hear further from the Iranians how they would like to proceed”, he added. “This is not going to be easy, but we believe that we are in a diplomatic process now that we can move forward on, and ultimately secure our objective, which is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and to do so through diplomacy”. The following day, Tehran confirmed that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on 12 March wrote EU High Representative Josep Borrell “to elaborate on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s positions on developments related to the JCPOA”, adding: “This letter… contains no plans” and “makes it clear that the first step for the U.S. to fully comply with its commitments is to correct its mistakes with regards to breaching the JCPOA and imposing sanctions on Iran”.

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