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Raisi Says Serious About Nuclear Deal If US Guarantees It Will Stay

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his country would be serious about reviving its nuclear deal with the world powers if it receives guarantees that the United States would not again withdraw from it. Raisi also said: “If it’s a good deal and fair deal, we would be serious about reaching an agreement.” He made the comments on Sunday during an interview on the CBS show 60 Minutes.

“It needs to be lasting. There need to be guarantees. If there were a guarantee, then the Americans could not withdraw from the deal,” Raisi said. “They did it unilaterally. They said that, ‘I am out of the deal.’ Now making promises is becoming meaningless.”

The interview reportedly is his first with a Western journalist. Raisi will be in New York this week for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the P5+1 group of world powers – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US) plus Germany – in July 2015. The agreement calls for Iran to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. Many of the agreement’s provisions, including the limits set on Iran’s enrichment of uranium, were to expire after 15 years. Former US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to violate its own commitments under the pact. Talks on reviving the agreement first began in April 2021.