The previous Donald Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, a crucial agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme, is one of the greatest strategic blunders of US foreign policy in recent years, a top official has said. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal or Iran deal, was reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 together with the European Union.
“This (Joe Biden) administration considers the decision on the part of the last administration to withdraw from the JCPOA, one of the greatest strategic blunders of American foreign policy in recent years,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Monday.
The P5+1 includes the five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — plus Germany, which during the Barak Obama administration had entered into an agreement with Iran.
The reason the United States was able to get JCPOA to arrive at a diplomatic arrangement was that it worked with allies and partners around the world to put significant economic pressure on Iran, Price said.
“What ultimately brought Iran to the table was not a strategic change in mentality on the part of the regime. It was, I think, a realisation that they were under tremendous economic duress. And rather than provide them with a strategic asset, their nuclear programme at the time was a strategic liability,” he said.
Price said the goal is to ensure that Iran continues to feel pressure until and unless it changes course. Now you can do that as the United States, the last administration attempted to do that with the strategy of maximum pressure, he said.
