TEHRAN – The Iran nuclear deal is still alive and it will be available to be renewed if Joe Biden is elected, says an American professor, noting the Trump administration “has do all it can” against Iran.

“[The nuclear deal] is still alive, and if Biden is elected, it will be available to be renewed. Everyone is waiting for the U.S. presidential elections before taking definitive action,” William Beeman, who is professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview with ILNA published on Saturday.

“The United States has done all it can, and has been rebuffed by the international community,” Beeman added.

On the possibility of a military conflict, he said there are many things that can lead to war, but not these futile “snapback actions” on the part of the United States.

These have been completely rejected by every other nation, and the UN has ruled that the United States cannot make them incumbent on other nations, because Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA, he said, using the official name of the Iran nuclear deal.

“So the United State has failed in trying to enact these actions. Additionally, the United States had already sanctioned everything possible in Iran, so there was no room for Trump to do more,” he pointed out.

Beeman argued that the Europeans would like to fulfill their obligations, but they are hamstrung by the United States because of the dominance of the U.S. dollar in international trade.

“The Europeans tried to create another financial transfer system to bypass the U.S. restrictions, and it was implemented, but it was so minuscule that it had no effect,” he said. “Russia and China are also trying to develop alternative transfer systems that would bypass the dollar.”

Asked to offer his take over a possible Trump victory, he said if Trump wins, Europeans will have to find some way to deal with him. “Right now the JCPOA is in stasis, and it could stay that way, but it would be rendered useless.”

“What people continually forget is that Iran and all other nations (except Israel, Pakistan, India, North Korea, and South Sudan) are bound by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which is a real treaty, not just an ‘agreement’ like the JCPOA,” the American scholar said.

He stressed that Iran is in full compliance with the NPT, and therefore, it cannot proceed to any kind of nuclear weapons development without withdrawing from the NPT. 

“This has been talked about in Iran, but I don't see it happening,” he added.

The commotion over Iran’s nuclear program was made by the U.S. and Israel while Iran has proven it has no intention to develop nuclear weapons. The country is subject to the most intrusive sanctions by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Based on a fatwa (religious decree) of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it is illegitimate to produce or use nuclear weapons and it has no place in Iran’s security doctrine. Iran has on numerous occasions repeated such position.

In August, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed to the fatwa, saying, “We’ve never been after nuclear weapons and will never do so.”

He said Iran regards the development of nuclear weapons as a morally wrong act and a wrong strategic move.

MH/PA