White House: Restoring Iran nuclear deal not in focus of US

The restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program is not currently in the focus of the US administration, the differences between the two sides are too great, John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House National Security Council, said at a regular briefing, Report informs.

“Our focus right now, quite frankly, … is not on the JCPOA. We are way far apart with the Iranians in terms of a return to the deal, so we’re just simply not focused on that right now. They had demands that were well in excess of what the JCPOA was supposed to cover.

And again, so we’re just - we are not focused on the diplomacy at this point.

What we are focused on is making sure that we’re holding the regime accountable for the way they’re treating peaceful protesters in their country, and supporting those protesters. And we are focused, as I said in my opening statement, on making sure we’re holding Iran and Russia accountable for this - for these arm sales.

And there are existing UNSCR resolutions, like 2231, that give us the authority to continue to sanction Iranian defense industry and that kind of thing.

As a matter of fact, I mean - just to level set, I mean, we’ve sanctioned companies - defense companies in Iran and one individual that is involved in the research, development, production, and procurement of UAVs and UAV components. And that would include the Shahed series of drones, which we know are being used inside Ukraine right now. Those are the ones that I’m sure you’ve seen - the tri-wings.

And we’re going to continue to impose those sanctions, as well as explore new sanctions, as we did yesterday in the UN. So, there’s going to be more to come on that,” he added.