The Iran deal, known as the JCPOA, is dead, President Joe Biden said last month, but the United States is not going to announce it.
The statement by Biden was recorded in an amateur video that was published Tuesday evening on social media. It was taken during a campaign stop ahead of the midterms in November in California.
Biden was shaking hands during a political rally and was asked by an Iranian-American if he would publicly declare that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the official name of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal - is dead.
The president said, “no.” Asked why, Biden said: “A lot of reasons.” The JCPOA, he continued, “is dead, but we’re not gonna announce it.”
The nuclear deal with Iran “is dead,” Biden admitted, even as he was maintaining that he won’t announce the JCPOA has died. pic.twitter.com/cKnnz6UH2B
— Frida Ghitis (@FridaGhitis) December 20, 2022
The woman stressed: “We just don’t want any deals with the mullahs…They don’t represent us, they’re not our government.”
Biden replied: “I know they don’t represent you. But they will have a nuclear weapon that they'll represent."
The surfacing of the video comes just days after the International Atomic Energy Agency - the UN's nuclear watchdog - visited Tehran to try and renew talks regarding a nuclear pact. Negotiations have been frozen since September, when the Islamic Republic suddenly hardened its position on resolving the IAEA probes, despite most of the world’s parties believing that a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, was all but signed.
On Monday night, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that now is the time to push Iran towards an improved nuclear deal, but if efforts fail, the world needs to to show and exercise force.
"Iran is, first of all, a global and regional challenge, and only then a threat to Israel," he said. "Just as NATO acts in a coordinated manner when it comes to Ukraine, we must push our partners in the international community to deal with Iran in a coordinated manner before it brings itself to act with nuclear power."