Ball in US Court

By: Kayhan Int’l

Saturday’s statement by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman rejecting the West’s ridiculous ‘step-by-step’ proposal for return of chief violator, the US, to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) in order to end Washington’s economic terrorism against the Islamic Republic, was a welcome development in the face of conflicting reports in the Iranian and foreign media on some sort of indirect talks with the untrustworthy Americans.
Indeed, it doesn’t make any sense for Iran to downscale the measures it has rightly taken of late within the framework of the 2015 Geneva Accord in response to the criminal measures of the US, whose new regime is talking trash when it says talks should be held to determine what steps Tehran should take for Washington’s rejoining of the JCPOA.
Iran is currently enriching uranium at 20 percent purity in line with the needs of its civilian industries, and as the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has said without mincing words, the Islamic Republic is fully entitled to increase this percentage to as high as 60 percent, if required by its peaceful nuclear projects.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s fatwa (religious edict) prohibiting manufacture of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological), is crystal clear to all, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the dangerously nuclear-armed countries, and needs not be repeated here.
JCPOA or no, Iran fully adheres to the dynamic laws of Islam which rule out the destruction of the environment and the massacre of the innocents, and behaves in a more responsible manner on all issues, including sensitive ones pertaining to regional and global peace, security, and other safeguards.
At the same time, the Islamic Republic doesn’t bow to blackmail, pressures, or threats, regarding its inalienable nuclear and other rights. It has no faith in the US, which instead of trying to trap Iran through the bait of talks or any ridiculous roadmap, should practically end its policy of economic terrorism, which of course ought to be properly verified over a certain period of time, for Iran to reciprocate.
Thus in his statement yesterday, Saeed Khatibzadeh rightly remarked: "The definitive policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the lifting of all US sanctions, whether those which (Donald) Trump re-imposed after withdrawing from the JCPOA or those which he initiated, as well as sanctions imposed under any other heading. Obviously, this lifting of sanctions must be effective and must be verified by Iran.”
The ball is now in the court of the US, and since Iran is not in a rush, it remains to be seen how chief culprit Washington will respond to the peaceful policies of Tehran, which definitely want the Americans to compensate the estimated loss of three hundred billion dollars that the Iranian economy has suffered over the past three years because of Trump’s state terrorism.