Biden can fix US reputation by rejoining Iran deal, honoring other pledges: Senior European lawmaker

A senior member of the European Parliament says President Joe Biden has to live up to his promises, including returning the United States to the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, if he seeks to repair the US reputation that was badly tarnished under predecessor Donald Trump.

Now is the time for Biden, who entertains the aspiration of rehabilitating the US’s reputation and restore its credibility, to fulfil his promises, including rejoining the JCPOA, Younous Omarjee wrote to IRNA in response to a number of questions, the news agency reported on Tuesday.

The French chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development was referring by abbreviation to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The nuclear agreement was made between Iran and the P5+1 group of states -- the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany -- in Vienna in 2015. The European Union acted as the party that coordinated the talks that led to the conclusion of the accord.

The deal, which has been hailed by the EU and the United Nations as a pillar of regional and international security, resulted in some voluntary changes in Iran’s nuclear energy program in return for removal of the US economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic and restoration of Tehran’s trade ties with the world.

Trump, though, called the JCPOA the “worst deal ever,” ending the US’s participation in it and returning the sanctions. Washington also began scaring others away from keeping up their trade with Tehran.

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The European official said Trump’s arbitrary measures threw into question all the achievements that the nuclear deal could have brought about.

He called the US’s insistence on crippling all business interactions with Iran, its attempt at exporting its own domestic laws overseas, calling the campaign “unacceptable.”

‘Dollar a main cause behind INSTEX’s failure’

The US allies in the deal, namely the UK, France, and Germany, bowed under Washington’s pressure and stopped their business transactions with the Islamic Republic, including concerning sales of direly-needed medicinal products to the country.

The trio set up INSTEX (the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) to supposedly bypass the American bans, but the mechanism did nothing towards relieving even some of the economic pressure that had been imposed on Iran.

Omarjee called it a “good development” for Europe to remain in the JCPOA, but acknowledged that the INSTEX that had been meant to protect the European companies that deal with Iran against the US’s economic bullying “did not prove effective.”

He called the US’s abuse of the dollar as the currency that dominates international trade as “one of the main reasons” behind INSTEX’s failure. “The US deploys the dollar as a political instrument in international equations,” he said.

‘EU should retain strategic independence’

Omarjee, however, said by the same token that the US allows itself to lead an independent policy, Europe should consider itself rightful to preserve and strengthen its “strategic independence” in the face of Washington too.

“Of course, the US will always be the US, but Europe should be Europe, too,” he noted.

“Europe has come to the conclusion that its interests are not always aligned with those of the White House,” said the official.

What to do now?

The European legislator was, meanwhile, asked what was to be done now that Trump was gone towards preservation of the nuclear deal and removal of the sanctions.

“The best course of action to be taken would be everybody’s return to the path that has been determined in the nuclear deal and all parties’ implementation of their commitments,” Omarjee stated.

Iran says the United States’ potential return to the nuclear deal could only be meaningful if Washington removed all of its oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation.

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