Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has proposed resuming negotiations on the 2015 international agreement limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions.
The ayatollah issued his ruling during a meeting with recently inaugurated reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet.
“We cannot trust the enemy,” he said, referencing the West. “But this does not mean that we cannot interact with the enemy in certain situations. There is no harm in that, but do not place your hopes in them.”
As Iran’s ultimate authority, his decree has given foreign minister Abbas Araghchi the green light to pursue revival of a revised nuclear accord. In a televised interview last week, Mr Araghchi said the original deal “cannot be implemented in its current form” but must be reopened for revisions in certain sections.
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Mr Pezeshkian has vowed to revive the accord in a bid to ease the sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy, prompting protests over unemployment, high inflation and conservative social controls.
Under the deal, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, shrink its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 per cent to 300kg for generating electricity, and reduce the number of enrichment centrifuges. Tehran also submitted to the most intrusive inspection and monitoring system ever conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
In return, sanctions were lifted on Iran’s oil exports, financial dealings, shipping, construction, mining and manufacturing.
The deal worked well until May 2018 when then US president Donald Trump reneged, making it impossible for fellow signatories Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany to lift sanctions. In 2019, Iran resumed uranium enrichment to 20 per cent and achieved 60 per cent purity, a step away from the 90 per cent needed for nuclear weapons.
Although Iran has renounced weaponisation, it amassed large stockpiles of enriched uranium and stalled engagement with the IAEA. Sanctions curbing oil sales were reimposed, but they have been repeatedly breached by Asian customers as well as Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria.
While pledging to return to the agreement during his election campaign, US president Joe Biden failed to do so after taking office. Instead, he demanded unrelated political concessions which Iran rejected, and negotiations went nowhere.
This contributed to the election of hardline Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in June 2021, rather than a moderate successor to reformist Hassan Rouhani who was in office when the deal was signed.
In September 2022, talks broke down. Although reviving the nuclear deal would count as a major foreign policy success, the Biden administration is unlikely to take up the challenge during its last six months in office.
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