Neither of America's two major parties will agree to return Washington to the Iran nuclear deal without modifications, US special representative for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams has said.
"I think there is no desire on the part of the United States simply to return to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] without changes or modifications. I think this is a bipartisan position in the US," Abrams said, speaking to the UAE's Emirates News Agency on Thursday.
"Even if you liked it in 2015, it really does not serve in 2021 and there will have to be changes, so I think it is not a day one matter. It's a complicated and somewhat lengthy negotiation," the Trump official, known for co-ordinating Washington's ongoing coup attempt in Venezuela, added.
Suggesting that the US's economic pressure campaign against Iran was working, Abrams noted that "if that leverage is used, it will be possible to get them to agree to do things they don't want to do, namely change their behaviour in the region, their missile programme and their nuclear programme. It would be a tragic thing to discard all of this leverage without using it."
![A woman walks past a satirical drawing of the Statue of Liberty after new anti-US murals appeared on the walls of the former American embassy unveiled in a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, 2 November 2019. A woman walks past a satirical drawing of the Statue of Liberty after new anti-US murals appeared on the walls of the former American embassy unveiled in a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, 2 November 2019. - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/107721/45/1077214512_0:0:3135:1255_600x0_80_0_0_038256620f890a65daa3d70af92940db.jpg)
Iran Says No to JCPOA Renegotiation
Iranian officials have stated repeatedly in recent weeks that Tehran would not be willing to renegotiate or modify the deal which Washington quit in 2018 in any way. Speaking to US media ahead of the 3 November election, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said the Islamic Republic and the US "can find a way to re-engage, obviously. But re-engagement does not mean renegotiation. It means the US coming back to the negotiating table."
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh echoed Zarif's sentiments, saying the JCPOA "can't be reopened by anyone," and adding that what was needed most of all was "a change in thinking and mentality of the US decision-makers". The US, he said, "has inflicted material damage on the Iranian people," and "should be held accountable for its illegal, anti-international, anti-Iranian behaviour."