News / 2020 ELECTIONS / Foreign Policy

Even if Biden wins, all sanctions against Iran won't be lifted: US envoy

Tuesday, 27 October 2020 4:36 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 27 October 2020 4:36 PM ]

US Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, speaks at a press briefing. (Getty Images)

If Joe Biden won the US presidential election he would have a tough time lifting economic sanctions against Iran imposed by President Donald Trump, a Trump envoy has claimed.

US Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela Elliott Abrams said that Washington “now has a comprehensive sanctions structure in place that will stay for a while.”

“Those who believe that a President Biden could come to office in January and by the second or third day all sanctions will be gone, will find out that it’s not feasible even if they wanted to do it,” he said in a recent interview with The National, which is a English-language newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

Biden has promised to return the US to the Iran nuclear deal — left by the Trump administration two years ago — if he wins the November 3 election.

Joe Biden: I will return US to Iran nuclear deal

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says if elected he will return the United States to the Iran nuclear deal as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.

Biden said that Washington will rejoin the 2015 deal if Iran returns to what he called “strict compliance” with the nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“I will also take steps to make sure US sanctions do not hinder Iran's fight against COVID-19,” Biden Claimed.

Abrams, however, said anti-Iran sanctions, especially those imposed by the Trump administration outside the Iran 2015 nuclear deal, will not be lifted anytime soon.

“Every sanction action that the Trump administration took until the official withdrawal from the JCPOA, could have been done under the agreement,” he said.

Some of the sanctions have been imposed on Tehran since 1979 and have nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program, according to Abrams.

The Washington envoy declined to comment on what Biden would do with the nuclear deal.

The Democratic presidential nominee has formerly signaled that he wants to renegotiate the international deal with Tehran.

Tehran, however, has repeatedly said that its ties with Washington does not depend on the result of the November election in the US.

It asserted on several occasions that there will be no positive development in the relations between the Islamic Republic and the US, unless Washington abandons its unlawful sanctions and corrects the wrong path it has chosen.