Last week, President Joe Biden made a strong statement that sanctions would not be lifted to induce Iran to return to nuclear talks. On Monday, pro-Iranian militant groups rocketed U.S. military bases in Iraq. Three days later, the Biden Administration turned its policy toward Iran, announcing a return to nuclear talks and lifting some sanctions against the country.
On Thursday (Feb. 18), a State Department spokesman said the U.S. accepted the European Union’s invitation to attend the “six plus one talks” on the Iranian nuclear issue (meaning negotiations between France, the U.S., Britain, Russia, China, Germany and Iran). The “six plus one negotiations” reached the “Iran nuclear deal” in 2015, but the Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and fully restored sanctions against Iran.
In addition, the U.S. sent a letter to the United Nations withdrawing the document on Iran sanctions that the Trump Administration submitted to the UN Security Council last September. In the letter just sent, the Biden administration said that the international community’s sanctions against Iran had been lifted through UN Resolution 2231, so the Trump administration’s September announcement of new sanctions against Iran is null and void.
The Biden administration also announced an easing of restrictions on Iranian diplomats, allowing them to move freely in and around New York. The Trump administration had restricted all Iranian diplomats to the U.N. headquarters in New York and several nearby streets, and also specified a round-trip route for Iranian diplomats from JFK Airport to New York.
On Monday, at least three rockets struck a U.S.-led coalition base in northern Iraq. The attack wounded one U.S. service member and five contractors, and killed another contractor, Reuters reported. Two U.S. officials said the dead were not American nationals.
But according to Hong Kong‘s Oriental Daily News, the rocket attack left at least one dead and eight wounded, and sources said the contractor killed was an American.
Saraya Awliya al-Dam, an emerging Shiite militant group accused of being pro-Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack. Secretary of State John Blinken expressed “outrage” over the incident and said he would “investigate and hold people accountable.
Last week, Biden told U.S. media that the U.S. would not lift sanctions on Iran in order to bring it back to the negotiating table, and that the U.S. would only lift them if Tehran stopped enriching uranium.
U.S. military bases in Iraq have also been frequently attacked by local pro-Iranian anti-government forces in the past. The Trump administration has therefore shocked the world by repeatedly ordering the bombing of anti-government forces in Iraq and the beheading of Iranian army chief Soleimani.
Trump also said that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was only a “cover” for Iran to continue developing nuclear weapons, so he used economic sanctions and military pressure to force Iran to abandon nuclear weapons completely, which once put Iran in an extremely difficult situation. After Trump left the White House, Iran demanded that the Biden administration revoke the sanctions and compensate Iran for the damage Trump had caused.
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