VIENNA: Stalled efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal must address the “changed circumstances” since the accord was negotiated, a US senator from President Joe Biden’s Democratic party said.

“There is a strong, almost universal desire by Congress … to go beyond the sunset dates that were included in the JCPOA,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, referring to dates in the deal beyond which certain restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity will no longer apply.

The 2015 deal delivered relief from UN and Western sanctions for Iran in return for strict curbs on the country’s nuclear program.

However, it has been slowly disintegrating since former US President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran. That prompted Tehran to disregard several of the deal’s limits on its nuclear activities.

The talks in Vienna to revive the deal have made little progress in recent weeks, and Iran’s latest breach was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday.

Iran was intending to produce uranium metal enriched to 20 percent, it said, prompting the US to respond by warning Iran to stop what it called its nuclear “brinkmanship.”

“Today is different than 2015, when these agreements were negotiated,” said Cardin, a member of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations.

“Circumstances have changed and they require us to respond to where we are today.”

AFP