Issue Brief on “Revival of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action: Challenges and Prospects”

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After the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) came to a halt in 2018 under Trump administration, the US and Iran have been undergoing negotiations this year. The eighth round of negotiations resumed in Vienna on January 03, 2022.[1] There have been no direct talks between Washington and Tehran after the US withdrew from the agreement in 2018.[2] According to Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Foreign Minister of Iran, the US officials have insisted on direct negotiations to restore the 2015 accord.[3] Meanwhile, no consensus has been reached yet because the US wants Iran to comply with the JCPOA’s terms and conditions.[4] While Iranian leaders have insisted the US to lift sanctions first. The US officials believe that without an agreement, Iran would continue to enrich its fissile material and eventually produce nuclear weapons, further destabilising the region.[5] The talks have been deadlocked on the sequencing steps towards the revival of JCPOA.

In the latest round of talks held on January 28 2022, the parties have declared that a point has been reached where political decisions must be made. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, says, “it is getting to the point where its breakout time, the time it would take to produce fissile material for a bomb, is getting down to a matter of a few weeks and that in and of itself is something that should not be sustained over time.”[6]

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