US President Joe Biden has said that he will not lift American sanctions on Tehran until it fully complies with the terms agreed under the historic 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal. However, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the country would only comply with the nuclear pact if Washington first lifted the sanctions.
In 2015, when the Obama administrations brokered the historic agreement, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program. But the former President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the pact and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, eventually leading Iran to roll back on its end of the deal. In recent months, Iran which claims that its nuclear program is peaceful has been significantly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium.
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- Tehran Rejects New Talks Or Parties in Iran Nuclear Deal
Under the 2015 pact – signed by Iran, the US, and other world powers, including France, Germany, China, Russia, and the UK – the Iranian regime agreed to limit its program and allow international inspectors to access and visit its nuclear sites in exchange for sanctions ease. Later, Trump withdrew from the pact in 2018 in a bid to renegotiate a new pact and reimposed economic sanctions.
In July 2019, Iran breached its 3.67 percent cap on uranium enrichment. Only recently, Tehran stated that it had started enriching uranium to twenty percent purity. While talking to a local news channel Biden also talked about the US-China relationship.
He said that he had not spoken to his Chinese counterpart since becoming the president and maintained that he had not changed his stance on Beijing. Biden further added that there was no reason for Washington to drawn into a direct conflict with China, but said that both sides would engage in what he described as global economic competition.