US, Iran negotiating a return to nuclear deal: A timeline of chequered agreement

Updated : April 07, 2021 04:19 PM IST

Talks between the US and Iran have been successful but restoring the deal may take time, says Russia’s envoy

Former US President Donald J Trump had pulled out of the accord in 2018

A meeting between the officials of the United States and Iran held in Vienna on Tuesday (April 6) has rekindled the hope that the two nations — currently not in the best phase of their bilateral relationship — may trace a way back to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), alias the Iran nuclear deal. After the discussions, held under the chairmanship of the European Union, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s envoy to the talks, said that the ‘meeting was successful but restoring the deal would take time’.

The historic agreement, inked during the Obama administration in 2015, reaches an understanding that Iran will shift its nuclear program from weapons production to peaceful commercial use for 10 years. Besides these two nations, Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia are the other signatories to this agreement.

Earlier in 2018, former US President Donald J Trump had pulled out of the accord and re-imposed harsh economic sanctions on Iran. However, incumbent US President Joe Biden has vowed to bring the US back into the deal.

Here’s all that transpired after the deal was first signed in 2015:

January and April 2016: The then US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hold meetings in Vienna and New York to discuss the implementation of JCPOA.

October 2016: Republican presidential candidate Donald J Trump says “he will withdraw from the deal if elected” and calls it “the stupidest deal of all time”.

May 2018: The then US President Donald Trump announces withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Meanwhile, Iran, France, Britain, and Germany continue to stay in the pact.

November 2018: Trump re-imposes sanctions on Iran’s oil sector that were lifted as part of the JCPOA agreement.

2019 and 2020: Bilateral relations between Iran and the US turn even colder due to the multiple economic sanctions imposed by the Trump regime. Later, the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020 brought the two nations to a flashpoint. While Iran vowed to avenge the killing, Trump said any such action will be reciprocated with an attack “1,000 times greater in magnitude”.

2020: Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden, during his electoral campaign, promises he will bring the US back into the Iran nuclear deal.

2021: As Biden assumes office, efforts to break the Iran nuclear deal deadlock start. Indirect talks between the US and Iran begin in Vienna in April 2021.

Published : April 07, 2021 04:19 PM IST

US, Iran negotiating a return to nuclear deal: A timeline of chequered agreement

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