TEHRAN - Political Science Professor at Colombia University Robert Y. Shapiro has said that a fresh start to diplomacy is the best solution to reduce tension between Iran and the United States, noting that Washington’s return to the 2015 nuclear deal would be best choice.

In an interview with ILNA published on Saturday, he said that the U.S. must return to the agreement to start to deal with issues related to that. However, Shapiro said, that requires the Trump administration to change its approach or for a new president to take office.

“Trump and the U.S. government are constantly talking about negotiating, but each day they are putting more threats against Iran so Tehran reduces its obligations in response to these threats,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran had sealed with the 5+1 nations, and imposed the most severe sanctions ever on the Islamic Republic under its maximum pressure policy.

In response to this move, on May 8, 2019, Iran announced that its “strategic patience” is over and started to gradually reduce its commitments to the JCPOA at bi-monthly intervals. At the time Iran announced if the European parties to the deal take concrete steps to shield Iran’s economy from the U.S. sanctions it will reverse its decision.

However, seeing no action by the Europeans, on January 5 Iran took the last and final step by removing all limits on its nuclear activities.

Iran’s moves are based on paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which “allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.”

Despite taking the last step, Iran has reminded the Europeans to fulfill their commitments in order to keep the deal alive.

NA/PA