UANI Statement: Reviving The JCPOA Is A Mistake

(New York, N.Y.) – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Chairman Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-CT) and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace released the following joint statement today upon news that indirect nuclear negotiations between Iran and the U.S. to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are resuming in Qatar. The renewed push, coming amidst Iranian assassination plots targeting Israeli tourists in Turkey, is being led by the European Union’s Joseph Borrell.  

“Resuming negotiations with Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal is a terrible mistake. A bipartisan majority of U.S. senators made it clear to the Biden administration just last month that they want to see an Iran policy that moves beyond reviving this failed former agreement. On the same weekend of Borrell’s announcement, Iran tested a satellite launch vehicle, marking another advancement of its ballistic missile program, which threatens our allies in the Middle East and American personnel there.

“While the negotiations have been taking place, Iran took two French citizens hostage, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, and continued its threats to execute Swedish-Iranian Ahmadreza Djalali. In the U.S., it was disclosed that as negotiations went on in Vienna last summer, Iran attempted a cyberattack against Boston Children’s Hospital—which the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation called one of the most “despicable” he had ever seen. The U.S. State Department also affirmed that current and former U.S. officials continue to face ‘serious and credible’ assassination threats from Iran. And, earlier this month, the regime announced it would be switching off International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) surveillance cameras as they continue to grow their nuclear stockpile.   

“Instead of continuing in vain to resuscitate an unsustainable agreement and treating Iran as a normal nation-state in the face of all this criminal behavior by Iran, the U.S. and its European allies should cease all negotiations and enforce all sanctions until Tehran changes its behavior and is no longer a threat to international peace and security. That means that any new agreement must require Iran to verifiably stop development of a nuclear weapons capability, stop taking hostages, and stop underwriting terrorism in the region and abroad.”  

We once again urge the Biden Administration to apply the following common-sense standards in its approach to Iran:

• No re-entry into the JCPOA along previous parameters;
• No sanctions relief provided in exchange for mere negotiations;
• Return to the “gold standard” of zero domestic enrichment and zero reprocessing;
• Resolution of outstanding safeguards inquiries focusing on undeclared nuclear activity;
• Addressing Iran’s unacceptable non-nuclear behavior as part of any new deal;
• Return to bipartisanship in America’s Iran policy;
• Consultation with U.S. regional allies and partners most threatened by Iran’s malign behavior before any new agreement with Iran is contemplated; and
• Release of all foreign hostages held by Iran.

To read UANI’s resource The Iran Nuclear Deal: What's Wrong With It And What Can We Do Now?, please click here.

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