Tehran, IRNA – Assistant to Bill Clinton and the then-senior official at the US National Security Council on African Affairs Dennis Jett believes that for the negotiations to succeed all parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as Iran nuclear deal, have to negotiate seriously.
Speaking to IRNA, Jett said, “They should learn what each party has to have to be able to reach agreement and be able to take it home and defend it.”
“I would think returning to the JCPOA and getting the sanctions trump imposed remove would be an achievement,” he said, referring to Trump administration sanctions imposed against Iran.
In response to a question about the reason why Biden administration has not yet been able to reach an agreement to return to full implementation of the JCPOA, he said, “It was not a high priority given the other demands on its time including COVID and the economy.”
Commenting on the impact of the third parties, such as Israel, Jett said, “The main third party is Israel and they will make it more difficult to achieve an agreement.”
“I assume all six countries on the US side of the table want to reach an agreement as they did before,” he noted.
When asked about the reason why US couldn’t stop Israel sabotage and what guarantee is there that Israel will stop its sabotage, he said, “The US cannot force Israel to stop. Taking actions it sees necessary for its defense.”
“The best way to demonstrate [that] those actions are not necessary is to return to the JCPOA and have the IAEA verify the peaceful intentions of Iran’s nuclear program,” Jett stated.
In response to a question whether the US administration is able to lift sanctions, he said, “Yes, but not all of them as there are a number of laws involved.”
Ambassador Dennis Jett is a founding faculty member of the Penn State School of International Affairs. While in the US Foreign Service, his career spanned 28 years and three continents. His academic research interests focus on international relations, peacekeeping and US foreign policy. Immediately prior to joining Penn State, he was the dean of the International Center at the University of Florida for eight years.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
