US should correct its wrong policy to break deadlock in Iran nuclear deal

Source
China Military Online
Editor
Lin Congyi
Time
2022-05-09 17:21:59

By Zhongsheng

As the instigator of the current predicament, the US is obligated to take practical measures instead of the ongoing wrong policy of extreme pressure, actively respond to Iran's legitimate and reasonable concerns, and facilitate the early resolution of outstanding issues.

Since April 2021, the parties to the Iranian nuclear agreement have engaged in intensive diplomatic negotiations with the US to resume the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). After more than a year of unremitting efforts, all parties have reached an agreement on resuming the implementation of the most part of the JCPOA. However, just as the negotiations were about to be completed, some outstanding issues stalled the process. The world is watching closely what the US will do to achieve the policy goal of returning to the JCPOA.

Maintaining and implementing the JCPOA is the effective way to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program and maintain peace and stability in the Middle East. Regrettably, driven by unilateralism, the previous US administration unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018 and exerted extreme pressure on Iran. The US brought the agreement to the brink of collapse and placed itself on the opposite side of the international community.

Recognizing the failure of the previous administration's policy towards Iran, the current US government now seeks to return to the JCPOA. Against this background, the parties to the JCPOA have launched intensive negotiations with the US. However, instead of fully considering certain legitimate and reasonable requests made by Iran, the US imposed more sanctions on Iran during the negotiations and threatened to formulate an "alternative plan" to the JCPOA. This makes people wonder whether the US really has the sincerity and the decision-making courage to return to the JCPOA? Or the US is still sticking to the old path of sanctions and pressure?

As the world knows, one of the main outstanding issues in the current Iranian nuclear negotiations is Iran's request to remove the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US list of "foreign terrorist organizations". The IRGC is Iran's national defense power, but listed as a terrorist organization by the US. It is hard to believe the US has the willingness to give up the wrong policy of extreme pressure on Iran, if it keeps IRGC on the list. Likely, if US lacks the ability the handle its domestic politic pressure over this topic, even its ability to return to JCPOA needs to be questioned.

At present, the negotiations are still deadlocked, and the prospects are still unpredictable. As the instigator of the current predicament, the United States is obligated to take practical measures instead of the ongoing wrong policy of extreme pressure, actively respond to Iran's legitimate and reasonable concerns, and facilitate the early resolution of outstanding issues. It must win the trust from the international community with firm actions.

China has no selfish interests on the Iranian nuclear issue and has never taken sides. The fundamental starting point of China's handling of the Iranian nuclear issue is to firmly uphold the JCPOA and multilateralism, safeguard the authority of the UN Security Council and the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, and maintain peace and security in the Middle East.

China has put forward a global security initiative and emphasized that it insists on peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation. China supports all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful resolution of crises, opposes double standards, and opposes the abuse of unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction". No matter how the international situation changes, China will always stand on the right side of history, firmly advance the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue, firmly safeguard multilateralism and the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, and make contributions to maintaining world peace and stability.

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