LONDON: Footage of US President Joe Biden declaring the Iran nuclear deal “dead” during a campaign event last month has been released, The Times reported on Wednesday.
In the video, supposedly filmed Nov. 4 ahead of the US midterm elections, Biden is stopped whilst walking past a crowd of supporters by an unidentified woman, who asks: “President Biden, can you please announce that JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) is dead? Can you just announce that?”
The president tells her “no” before adding: “It is dead, but we’re not gonna announce it. It’s a long story.”
The woman, who appears to be Iranian and is with others who agree with her, then responds by saying: “We just don’t want any deals with the mullahs. No deals — they don’t represent us.”
John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, refused to agree with the president’s phrasing on Tuesday, but told the media that Washington is not focused on a deal with Tehran at present.
“The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is just not our focus,” Kirby said. “It’s not on our agenda. We simply don’t see a deal coming together anytime soon while Iran continues to kill its own citizens and selling UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to Russia.”
The JCPOA, which was meant to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, was originally agreed under the administration of former US President Barack Obama in 2015, when Biden was serving as vice president.
It was signed by the US, China, France, Russia, the UK, Germany and the EU, and eased sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran reducing its nuclear program.
Former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA in 2018, calling it a “horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”
Efforts to resurrect the JCPOA under Biden have proven difficult, amid intransigence from Iran, a lack of enthusiasm for the deal a second time around in Washington and other Western capitals, and the steadfast opposition of Israel.
