Iran Press/ America: JCPOA is a historic agreement reached by Iran and world powers, including the US, in 2015, under Barack Obama’s presidency. It was made, in part, to reduce Iran’s probable ability to produce two components used in making nuclear weapons: plutonium and uranium. In return, crippling economic sanctions would be eased.
On May 8, 2018, the outgoing US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA in violation of Washington's international commitments, declaring the return of nuclear sanctions on Iran.
Trump's move has been widely condemned in domestic and international arenas.
Now there is new speculation about whether President-elect Joe Biden will move to re-enter the US in the deal or try to renegotiate.
Speaking to France 24 on Sunday, Abdullah al-Moallemi said, "Nobody would be naive enough to go back to a deal that has proven its failure to the entire world."
Regarding his country's relations with the US government, al-Moallemi said that over the past 60 years, we have had close relations with all US governments and that Riyadh's interaction with the US president is not based on relations with an entire government.
Unable to hide his fear of Washington's declining support for Riyadh during Biden, he said his country needed no assurances from US governments, but Riyadh urges the Washington administration to live up to its commitments to counter-terrorism and what he called the consolidation of a legitimate government in Yemen.
Normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations
Elsewhere in the interview, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN did not deny the normalization of relations with the occupying Zionist regime, saying that this is conditional on Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
G20 summit has nothing to do with the Khashoggi case
While the reputation of Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been tarnished after the invasion of Yemen and the brutal assassination of critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi government agents, Al-Moallemi said the meeting had nothing to do with the Khashoggi case, but because of Saudi Arabia's strategic, effective and active role in the world system.
Possible release of activists will not be due to pressure
Regarding the detention of human rights activist Lina Al-Hathoul and 34 Saudi journalists, he claimed: "The cases of all these people are being investigated with full transparency, and if these people are eventually released, it will not be due to pressure [foreign countries], but the result of the normal course of events."
Biden has criticized Saudi Arabia for human rights abuses, saying his administration would re-evaluate its relations with the kingdom.
On the second anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, Biden said: "We will re-evaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia, end US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, and ensure that the United States does not focus solely on arms sales and oil purchases in its policies with Saudi Arabia."
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