Top Democrats in the House began circulating a letter on Wednesday that supports Joe Biden’s plan to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, with no preconditions.
“We strongly endorse your call for Iran to return to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States to rejoin the agreement, and subsequent follow-on negotiations,” the letter reads. It is being circulated by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Rep. David Price (D-SC).
The idea of the letter is to show Biden he will have support from the House if he works with Iran to return to the JCPOA. Several other Democrats have already signed onto the letter, including Brad Sherman (D-CA), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), and Joaquin Castro (D-TX).
Last week, Biden said he would return to the deal and work on follow-on negotiations for a stricter agreement that covers Iran’s ballistic missile program. It’s not clear if Iran would entertain further treaties, but Iranian officials have made it clear they are ready to quickly come into compliance with the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions.
On Wednesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani reiterated Tehran’s stance and said returning to the deal needs “no negotiations” and that it “just Needs a Signature.”
Ten sanction-free years before any new negotiations.
The original idea of the Iran Deal was that it made a window of time for further negotiations on these other issues, and to make a more permanent deal.
Half of that window has been wasted.
The remaining window has been poisoned by US bad faith.
Now we cannot seriously expect to return to where we were. We cannot seriously demand more, demand concessions on all issues just to halt our own bad faith.
Ongoing assassinations and terrorist bombings inside Iran only make that worse, which was the real point of doing them.