Price claims Iran's proposal goes beyond scope of JCPOA

US State Department spokesman in his daily press conference on Tuesday implicitly confirmed the remarks of the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that Iran has put forward a new proposal to revive the JCPOA but he declined to comment directly on Iran's proposals.

"As we and our European partners have made clear, we are prepared to immediately conclude and implement the deal we negotiated in Vienna, the deal that has been on the table for a number of months now for a mutual return to full compliance with the JCPOA. But for that to happen, Tehran needs to decide to drop demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA, needs to decide to drop issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA," he claimed, adding, "We have made very clear where we are. We believe that if Iran makes this political decision, we’ll be in a position to conclude and pursue a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA very swiftly. If Iran does not do that, it will further imperil the odds that we will ever be able to reach a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA."

He went on to claim, "We have been in regular indirect contact via the European Union, so we’re not going to speak to the specifics – specific dynamics of this diplomacy other than to say that Enrique Mora has been – has served as an important go-between role, and we await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA."

Speaking in a joint press conference with Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who is visiting Tehran on Tuesday, Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran has never shied away from the negotiating table and that the Islamic Republic will not stay away from the logic of diplomacy.

"We have put a new political package and a new initiative on the table. Although the American side accepted the initiative, it also insisted on passing the resolution," he added. 

The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that the US, along with its three European allies, submitted the resolution in order to exert more pressure on Tehran and obtain concessions in indirect talks.

Since April last year, the Iranian negotiating team has been involved in marathon talks with the other remaining parties to the JCPOA – Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia – with the aim of bringing the US back into the deal and lifting its sanctions against Tehran.

However, the Vienna talks have been on hold since March as Washington insists on its refusal to undo its past wrongs through measures such as removing Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.