Here’s what Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recently stated about Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West:

“We have no unusual demands, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed our commitment. Just as the Trump administration put pressure on Iran, so does the Biden administration. We adhere to everything we sign. We advise the United States to act as soon as possible, because there is little opportunity. We did 20 percent enrichment for peaceful purposes in the 1990s. We do not make nuclear weapons and it is not possible to use such weapons and we do not even use chemical weapons. The United States cannot ask us to return to the zero point of the negotiations.” (State-run daily Entekhab, March 15, 2021)

Amazing these are some of the latest statements of the foreign minister of a country who thought that it can achieve its nuclear goals by threating the entire world. And its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei making a showoff for its forces, warned the US and the entire world, that if they want any new negotiations, they must lift all the sanctions. As it turned out, they cannot remove the sanctions, nor continuing with the nuclear bullying and return to Iran’s past threatening policy.

The Supreme Leader while stating that negotiations with the US are ‘forbidden’, in silence sent his foreign minister for negotiations.

An autopsy of Zarif speeches

Regardless the saber-rattling of Iran’s officials, there are several issues to consider in Mohammad Javad Zarif’s speech:

  1. Propositions suggest that in the context of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (known as the JCPOA), time is to the detriment of Iran’s government.
  2. Earlier, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence likened the situation of the regime, which is in the siege of crises to a cat stuck in the corner and tried with atomic chest-thumping to find an emergency solution. Now, various officials of this regime are swearing that they are against making an A-bomb, which is ‘haram,’ or forbidden, by the sharia laws of this regime.
  3. Zarif said that, “The United States cannot ask us to return to the zero point of the negotiations.” Based on proof by contradiction, it must be concluded that such an assumption is in place and that the regime is stuck. In other words, returning to the 2015 JCPOA is an illusion.
  4. “We have no unusual demands”, what is the meaning of this sentence? Did not Khamenei on January 8 said: “If the sanctions are lifted, the US return to the JCPOA will make sense. There is also the issue of damages, which will be pursued in the next steps. If the sanctions are not lifted, the return of the United States to the JCPOA is not only not in our interest, but also to our detriment and not in our interest.” Has the regime given up on this important demand? If yes, why?

The state-run daily Shargh admitting the time parameter is to the detriment of the Iranian government in an article on March 15, 2021, stating: “Whatever is delayed, the cross-current with the JCPOA in Washington will be added to the obstacles to lifting the sanctions and will gradually consolidate them. At the same time, during delays, fabricated events, such as the killing of a US soldier in Iraq or an Israeli attack on ships or positions close to Iran in Syria, may completely divert the course of peaceful engagement. Hence, I think ‘time’ is an important factor that will play a significant role in the revival or collapse of the JCPOA.”

Beyond the time parameter, despair, frustration, and a sense of impasse over the JCPOA’s fate are taking the place of the optimism of the previous months.

“The release of Joe Biden’s statement in the media, titled ‘Interim National Security Strategic Guidance,’ indicates a lack of change in US policy. In fact, the statement had nothing new, and it frustrated those who, after Donald Trump and the events of this period, expected a change in American attitudes.” (Kayhan, March 15, 2021)

In the recent process, the regime has been forced to retreat more and more; So far, that they are talking about, that in order to get out of this impasse, they must reconsider their defense and nuclear doctrine.

“If the revival of the JCPOA is not possible, I believe that Iran needs to conduct a serious and fundamental review of its, ‘Defensive doctrine’, and ‘Nuclear doctrine’, then set the new situation as a platform for comprehensive negotiations with the United States, with the goal of achieving a ‘Détente’ situation.” (State-run daily Shargh, March 15, 2021)