Iran is ready for a new nuclear agreement with the US

Iran is ready for a new nuclear agreement with the US — but the clock is ticking, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday, Zarif said the Biden administration has a “limited window of opportunity” to re-enter the 2015 nuclear agreement. “The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited,” he said. “The United States has a limited window of opportunity, because President Biden does not want to portray himself as trying to take advantage of the failed policies of the former Trump administration.”

Last month, the Iranian regime announced that it had resumed enriching uranium up to 20% purity at its Fordow nuclear facility; far above the 3.67% cap imposed by the 2015 pact, though still short of the 90% that is considered weapons-grade.

Nuclear Agreement 

Tehran has made clear that any new nuclear agreement now with the US under Biden’s administration will be contingent on a reversal of the harsh economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. In December, the hardliner-dominated Iranian Parliament passed legislation obligating the government to further ramp up uranium enrichment; if American sanctions are not eased within two months of the law’s adaptation.

Asked just how swiftly Iran could scale back its uranium enrichment program to comply with the nuclear deal if the US lifts sanctions, Zarif said, “8,000 pounds of enriched uranium can go back to the previous amount in less than a day.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC in an interview Sunday that the US assessed that it could be “a matter of weeks” before Tehran has enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon if it continues to lift JCPOA constraints even further.

Issue with Yemen

“Is the United States prepared to reduce hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons it is selling to our region? Is the United States prepared to stop the massacre of children in Yemen if it wants to talk about the situation in Yemen?” he said. Coalition airstrikes in Yemen have involved US-made bombs, CNN investigations previously revealed.

“The United States has to accept what we agreed upon,” Zarif also said. “We decided not to agree on certain things, not because we neglected them, but because the United States and its allies were not prepared to do what was necessary.”