John Bolton, former US Envoy to the United Nation, is one of the main opponents to Iran’s nuclear deal who in his latest remarks has emphasized that JCPOA cannot be changed basically and fundamentally.
(Bolton is an American lawyer and diplomat who has served in several Republican administrations. Bolton served as the US ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 as a recess appointee by former President George W. Bush.)
Bolton has acknowledged that a landmark nuclear deal inked between Iran and world’s six major powers could not be reformed and also a paragraph cannot be added to it.
He emphasized “adding sub-clauses to this deal is not the main issue, rather, the principle of this agreement is wrong from the beginning, so that the deal cannot be amended at all.”
Given the above issue, Bolton’s statements can be juxtaposed with the recent remarks of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He, who is one of the main apparent opponents for violating nuclear deal by the White House, has recently talked about the possibility of conclusion of “secondary deal” between Iran and 5+1.
In a recent interview with CCN TV Network, Tillerson emphasized that the White House has shown a green light to US Congress, claiming that US government is not after imposing new sanctions on Iran and said “If an agreement is not taken after in this regard, US President Donald Trump insists on withdrawing from the deal. However, Trump wants a more comprehensive strategy towards Iran.”
For a long time and especially in the previous government, “we have limited our relations with Iran only to a nuclear deal. This agreement has some shortfalls and weaknesses that we not only want to address them but also we want to examine a lot of other threats that Iran has brought about in the region,” he said.
We have agreed with other parties involved in the deal to resolve some shortfalls in this regard, so that these cases can be included in the secondary agreement.
It seems that Trump’s legal advisers have come to this conclusion that imposition of new restrictions on JCPOA within the framework of an amendment is not basically possible. Because, any amendment should not be considered as a violation of basic provisions and paragraphs of a deal.
This is while Trump emphasizes on amending the paragraphs dubbed “Sunset” which means changing the original text of the agreement.
Under such circumstances, US authorities have come to the conclusion that existing deal should be set aside practically and a secondary agreement should be concluded in return provided that US President Trump’s multiple demands on the deal should be met completely.
It is obvious that there is a complete harmony between Bolton’s statements about the unchangeable nature of JCPOA and Tillerson’s statement on the possibility of conclusion of a secondary agreement in this regard.
It should be noted that many discussions have been held in the US Review Committee in recent weeks on the way and method of adoption of change on the nature of nuclear deal dubbed “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action”.
What is certain here is this that meeting Trump’s demands on JCPOA is not basically important for the Islamic Republic of Iran, so that any attempt and move taken by the United States on changing the nature of nuclear deal is unacceptable by our country.
Translated by: Morteza Ahmadi