TEHRAN - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that Joe Biden's projected win presents “many new chances” for cooperation between Berlin and Washington, according to a Deutsche Welle report.

The chief German diplomat expressed hope that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would be revived through cooperation between the United States and Europe.

“We need to come back together on this,” Maas told public radio Deutschlandfunk, adding that Biden's win in the U.S. presidential election could, among other things, increase the scope of cooperation between European countries and the United States on the nuclear deal with Iran.

According to Maas, the debate over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program will heat up again in the United States.

Biden has stated that the United States will return to the nuclear deal with Iran and use it as a starting point to address other issues of concern.

It’s not clear yet whether the new U.S. administration would seek to maintain the JCPOA or pursue the policy of reaching a new deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

The German foreign minister pointed out that Germany is ready to go with both options. He warned that either in connection with Iran's nuclear program or in connection with that country's missile program, the scattered and independent activities and efforts of Europe and the United States will not achieve the desired result.

Maas underlined that the United States and its European allies must pursue a joint strategy to achieve the desired result.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal on May 8, 2018, reimposing sweeping economic sanctions on Iran in an effort to reach what he called a better deal with Iran. But Iran refused to negotiate with the Trump administration over a new nuclear deal under the sanctions pressure.

SM/PA