Iran's new president rules out meeting with Biden

Sitting before dozens of microphones in his first press conference since the election Friday, Iran's President-elect Ebrahim Raisi fielded questions from domestic and international media. According to his responses, he intends to continue many of Hassan Rouhani’s foreign policies.

In regard to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Raisi said the current negotiating team would stay in place and are issuing reports to his foreign policy team. It is widely believed at this point that the current nuclear talks taking place in Vienna to have the United States reenter the nuclear deal and Iran return to full compliance with the terms of the JCPOA are being supervised by the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all foreign policy matters.

Raisi also said that after the US exit from the deal, the Europeans also did not abide by the agreement. The United States must remove all sanctions, he said — even those applied by the Trump administration, which exited the 2015 JCPOA and reapplied international sanctions. He reiterated a position stated by Khamenei that once all of the steps the United States takes to reenter are verified, Iran will then return to full compliance of the JCPOA.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said negotiations are likely going to end soon, and the next round of talks will likely be the last. Negotiators held their most recent talks on June 19. The negotiators all left Vienna for their capitals in order to make a final decision. Iranian negotiators want assurances that the United States will not exit the deal again. However, given that the JCPOA is not a treaty approved by Congress and requires presidential waiving of sanctions, it appears difficult to give such assurances.