In this webinar Professor Heinz Gaertner, lecturer for Political Science at the Universities of Vienna and Krems, and Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Peace (IIP), and Eric Lob, Associate Professor at Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, gave their speeches on the issue.
Foundation of Dialogue and Solidarity of United Nations based in Iran is a non-governmental, non-profit, and trans-religious organization that works for the realization of peace and human rights, tolerance, and friendship between nations.
At the beginning of the meeting, Professor Gaertner, after giving history about JCPOA, added: If the negotiations failed there would be an EU failure because the European Union after all took the responsibility to moderate these negotiations. And the European Union also called a regional JCPOA a masterpiece of multilateralism. So the European Union would lose a lot of its values when it would give up on multilateralism. Iran is interested in lifting the sanctions, and all have an interest in regional stability.
He then spoke about the possibility of concluding the talks: Maybe there is a seventh round of negotiations. We don't really know, because some issues remained. At the end, will be a meeting for the foreign ministers. If they come to an agreement, foreign ministers will come to Vienna.
Finally, in response to a question from the panel manager that was sent to him before the program, he clarified: For me, it is not that important the negotiations will be concluded before the Iranian elections or after it. First of all, the next president will be at work after August, 2021. And secondly, if there is an agreement, the next president of Iran will benefit from the lifting sanctions.
As our second speaker, Loeb, after pointing to the agreement among many scholars and analysts about the failure of maximum pressure on Iran, added: not only the maximum pressure shows the limit of sanctions, but the inability to really isolate Iran, in terms of economy and military Lifeline that the Chinese and Russian provided to Iran.
Loeb commented on the change in the Biden period: now we have seen on the US side a very good gesture have been made that keep the negotiation going in terms of just recently eliminating Obama error sanctions on several Iranian individual and entity and unfreezing 7 billion dollars Iranian asset in South Korea to help Iran paid on dues.
And finally remarked: beyond JCPOA related technicalities in domestic politics, the biggest issue comes in over decades of hostility, tension, and mistrust. Diplomacy and communication between Iran and the US even if it is indirect at the moment can help both sides mitigate and manage conflict and cooperate on security issues. JCPOA may be a building block or a stepping stone to improve regional peace and stability and may it improve relations not just between the US and Iran but also between Iran and its regional adversaries.
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