Ayatollah Khamenei calls on U.S. to lift all sanctions

TEHRAN – Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei reiterated Iran’s position on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, calling on the United States to lift all sanctions before Iran returns to its commitments under the deal.

 ‘Maximum pressure’ on Iran was total failure: Russian diplomat

TEHRAN - The United States economic pressures against Iran was a total failure and that needs no further evidence to be recognized, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov has said.

Contradiction seen in Biden admin’s actions and words toward nuclear deal

TEHRAN - The United States is willing to sit down with Iran “tomorrow” and jointly agree to full compliance with the nuclear accord they and five other world powers signed in 2015, a Biden administration official told the Washington Post.

“Maximum pressure” stigmatized the idea of engagement with the West: Foreign Affairs

TEHRAN - In early February, Iran promised that once the United States completely lifted economic sanctions, Iran would return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but just two weeks later, Iran declared that Iran might enrich uranium up to 60 percent purity if the country needed it, according to Foreign Affairs magazine.

By Mehrdad Pahlavani, Asia analyst

What made diplomacy vulnerable in Iran: An inside-out perspective

Diplomacy, as an efficient art or an efficacious tool to resolve problems, has been undermined in the recent history of Iran's foreign relations. It has been done through creating many impediments and blockages for Iran in areas of diplomacy. This phenomenon to resort to hard politics is familiar to Iranians and its rivals. Confining, or even strangling, dialogue and diplomacy through expanding a wide spectrum of sanctions on Iran and cherishing military expenditure in West Asia is a well-known procedure. This abject slip is still underway. 

Analyst says the U.S. owes Iran much

TEHRAN – A journalist and analyst who writes in Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post, enumerates a number of injustices that the United States has done against Iran.

Gradual return to JCPOA hit dead end as U.S. refuses to lift sanctions 

TEHRAN – Iran and the West have been engaged in intense talks on how to revive a 2015 nuclear deal but the U.S. insistence on maintaining sanctions has stymied the talks, Press TV reported. 

Pompeo admits Trump admin failed to bring Iran to negotiating table

TEHRAN - Former U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo acknowledged on Sunday that the Trump administration failed to bring Tehran to the negotiating table for a new nuclear deal.

International double standard made Iran cautious about talks: former Italian diplomat

TEHRAN - Marco Carnelos, a former Italian diplomat, has said that the international community is following a double standard in dealing with Iran and this has made the country wary of rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. 

Zarif's letter to EU's Borrell contains no plans: Foreign Ministry

TEHRAN - Saeed Khatibzadeh, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, confirms that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has sent a letter to Josep Borrell, the EU coordinator for the joint commission of the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Biden should pursue ‘power of reason’ with Iran: diplomat

TEHRAN - Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the special aide to the speaker of the Iranian Parliament on international affairs, has called on U.S. President Joe Biden to learn from history and pursue the “power of reason” when dealing with Iran. 

By: Azin Sahabi

Lifting sanctions: A bridge too far

Given the determinant role of the U.S. Congress in grand strategic policy-making, any nuclear agreement with Iran is not obligatory unless it is approved by the American legislative body.

Russia calls on U.S. to abandon ‘meaningless policy of maximum pressure’ on Iran

TEHRAN – Russia has welcomed American signals of readiness for talks with Iran to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major world powers but says the United States needs to end “the meaningless policy of maximum pressure on Iran.”

Irish FM sees ‘fundamental’ change in U.S. approach to JCPOA

TEHRAN - Ireland's Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the U.S. has adopted a fundamentally different approach to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and that there is a new window of opportunity to revive the pact.

By Martin Love

It’s a wonder Iran has not ditched the JCPOA…

Old man Joe Biden is showing a lack of fresh thinking more than anyone suspected he would, given his campaign promises, and this so soon in his own bizarre presidency. Some of his best promises have turned to dust.

Biden pursues Trump’s policy against Iran: Foreign Ministry 

TEHRAN – The new U.S. administration of Joe Biden pursues the same policy that the Trump administration pursued against Iran, Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. 

Ex-U.S. intelligence officer advises Biden to rejoin JCPOA with no preconditions

‘Biden has boxed himself into a corner on Iran’

TEHRAN- Iran will not accept the Biden administration’s unrealistic and unreasonable demands for the U.S. to rejoin the nuclear agreement, former U.S Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter wrote in Russia Today on March 5.

Iran has reasons to refuse Biden’s invitation to negotiate: National Interest

TEHRAN - It makes little sense for Iran to unilaterally comply with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for a limited amount of actual economic sanction relief only to then engage in a years-long negotiation where it has little leverage and is being called on to surrender its regional interests and deterrence capacities, according to National Interest.

Rouhani meets Irish FM, says JCPOA revival dependent on lifting sanctions

JCPOA revival dependent on lifting sanctions, Rouhani tells Irish FM

TEHRAN - The 2015 nuclear deal will be back on track only if the U.S. lifts the sanctions on Iran and all parties to the multilateral agreement, including Europeans, meet their commitments, President Hassan Rouhani said in a meeting with visiting Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.

Israel must be held accountable for assassinating Iranian nuclear scientist: ambassador 

TEHRAN – There is evidence suggesting that Israel was behind the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and that Israel should be held accountable for the crime, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna, has said. 

Ulyanov describes U.S. readiness to rejoin JCPOA as a pragmatic move

TEHRAN - Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to International Organizations, including the IAEA, in Vienna, has said the United States’ willingness to return to the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal), is a pragmatic and right approach, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported on Friday.

Irish foreign minister set to meet Iranian president to discuss JCPOA

TEHRAN - Simon Coveney, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, is travelling to Tehran on Saturday to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for discussions on the stalled nuclear deal between Iran and the EU and the countries of the UN Security Council, according to the Irish Times.