Senator of the Russian Federation Alexei Pushkov. Archival photoMOSCOW, 14 Jul. Washington's threats to use force against Tehran will be a powerful blow to the image of the United States in the world, Senator Alexei Pushkov wrote on his Telegram channel. Earlier, US President Joe Biden announced his readiness to use force against Iran as a «last resort» in case of failure of negotiations renewing the JCPOA.
WSJ explained how Putin outplayed the US «If Iran is now closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon than ever, as Biden says, then it is primarily the fault of the US itself, which canceled the «nuclear deal» under Trump, and then failed under Biden restore,» Pushkov noted. The politician stressed that such statements testify to Washington's exhaustion of the resources of «global leadership» and the inability of diplomacy to cope with the role that the United States is trying to take on. France and Iran signed a nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which involved the lifting of sanctions in exchange for limiting Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction in its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment. Negotiations were held in Vienna to renew the JCPOA and lift Washington's sanctions against Tehran. In December 2021, the parties reached an agreement on two draft agreements, in which the European side included the positions of Iran. Iranian spokesman Bagheri Kyani said the talks were going well, but US State Department spokesman Ned Price assessed the progress in Vienna as modest, urging Tehran to take the issue seriously. With the return of the parties to their capitals at the end of March, the negotiations were suspended. The Iranian Foreign Ministry blames the US administration for this. The latest round of JCPOA talks was held in Doha, Qatar, on June 29-30. Iran
