U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has on Thursday stated he will apply a multilateral and diplomatic approach to tackling Iran’s nuclear program, but reiterated his determination to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Biden while speaking to CNN said he remains committed to the principles of the 2015 nuclear deal, and also criticise President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018.
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‘The bottom line is that we can’t allow Iran to get nuclear weapons,’ he said. Trump ‘has pulled out to get something tougher, and what have they done? They’ve increased the ability for them to have nuclear material,’
Biden argued. ‘They’re moving closer to the ability to be able to have enough material for a nuclear weapon.’
Biden, who was interviewed alongside Kamala Harris, his VP, also stressed the importance of a coalition in dealing with Iran: ‘We cannot do this alone. And that’s why we have to be part of a larger group, dealing not only with Iran, but with Russia, with China and a whole range of other issues.’
The president-elect also said it was ‘hard to tell how much’ the recent assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh would impact any potential rapprochement with Tehran, after a senior U.S. administration official and top Iranian officials claimed that Israel was behind the assassination earlier this week.
Biden also told New York Columnist Thomas Friedman that the US will rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on if Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal. Despite the acknowledgement it would ‘hard,’ Biden also redoubled his commitment to end sanctions on Iran in an interview with the New York Times published on Wednesday.
Report has stated that Biden and his national security team will seek a further round of negotiations to extend the 15-year-duration of the restrictions on Iran’s production of fissile material that could be used to make a bomb. They will also look to address Iran’s regional activities through proxy groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on Thursday that it will fully comply with the 2015 deal aimed at preventing it from developing nuclear weapons if both the United States and Europe honor their original commitments’.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK