President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday sent the incoming Biden administration signals that Iran would restrict its nuclear program to the limits set by its 2015 agreement with world powers if the United States once again implemented the deal. Both said this could be a straightforward process that did not require negotiations.

Speaking at a weekly Cabinet session on Wednesday, Rouhani suggested that a Biden administration would be closer to pre-Trump era when US policies towards Iran were more “rule-oriented.” Rouhani reiterated that Washington should lift sanctions “because the US ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran had failed but also suggested that a government led by Joe Biden would “return to the previous positions, and that can change the atmosphere.”

Rouhani denied that this required talks with the US, as many analysts and politicians – inside and outside Iran – have argued.  “It is not a matter of negotiation with the United States at all, it is a completely different matter,” Rouhani said.

Since President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive), and imposed tough sanctions, Iran has taken a series of steps in its atomic work beyond JCPOA limits, including enriching uranium to 4.5% rather than 3.67% and building up fuel stocks to twelve times the permitted level.  Tehran has stressed that such steps are easily reversible, an argument that experts generally support although Wendy Sherman, the lead US negotiator in 2015, has suggested the deal cannot be instantly revived.  

Rouhani’s expression of optimism reiterated remarks made by Zarif earlier in the day, when the foreign minister suggested the US needed to acknowledge United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the JCPOA. The resolution, which was unanimously endorsed by the 15 council members on July 20, 2015, set out an inspection process for Iran’s nuclear activities and scheduled the removal of UN sanctions against Iran.

In an interview with Iran Newspaper, the administration’s official mouthpiece, published on Wednesday, Zarif said that Iran would quickly reverse the steps that it has taken since the US left the JCPOA in 2018 in return for US acknowledgement of Resolution 2231. Zarif pointed out that “as a member of both the UN and the UN Security Council it cannot call Resolution 2231 illegal.”

Zarif explained that the council decisions were binding on UN member states. “As a UN member the United States must abide by the Resolution 2231 without having to be a member of the JCPOA,” he said. “Japan is not a JCPOA member but is required to abide by Resolution 2231. As I said, what we will do will be swift if they return to the implementations of their commitments, meaning we will return to the implementation of our commitments. This requires no negotiations.”