In negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, Iran is demanding guarantees that the US will not unilaterally abrogate the treaty, and guarantees from the Europeans that they will not comply with unilateral US sanctions.
This is rather unsurprising, given the US record on upholding treaties in general, and it's unilateral violation of the JCPOA in particular.
Given that the US attitude toward to international its international mirrors that of Ernestine the Telephone Operator, "We don't care. We don t have to. We're the phone company."
The US is simply not a credible participant in international agreement:
Iran requires a commitment that the US will not again leave the nuclear deal signed with world powers in 2015, the country’s new chief negotiator and deputy foreign minister has told the Guardian.
Ali Bagheri Kani also said that talks in Vienna between Iran and other signatories had failed to reach agreement on a means of verifying that US sanctions had both been lifted and had a practical impact on trade with Iran.
“We need verification, and this remains unresolved. It is one of the issues that remains not finalised. It is not enough for the ink to be put on the agreement,” he said. Bagheri Kani did not rule out an independent body being responsible for verification.
The Vienna talks are due to recommence at the end of the month after being suspended by Iran, after the June election of a new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi. Bagheri Kani is touring European capitals to set out the Iranian negotiating position.
Iran has said it will not take its own steps back into full compliance with the deal until verification of US actions has been secured. Iran has been increasing its uranium stockpile and use of advanced centrifuges beyond the limits set in the deal. It has limited the access of the UN nuclear inspectorate.
Defending his demand that the US give a guarantee that it will comply with the agreement, Bagheri Kani said: “This is about an agreement not a policy. If there is a peace agreement between two states, it has the effect of a treaty. This is international law. It is not intended that domestic laws of the US can prevail over an international agreement. That is against international law.”
He added he wanted European powers to give their own guarantees that they will trade with Iran, regardless of the US position, possibly by using a blocking statute nullifying the effect of US sanctions on European firms that trade with Iran.
It's easy to blame this on Donald Trump's decision to violate the agreement, but this is actually symptomatic of the US foreign policy establishment, aka "The Blob", which has promulgated the idea that the myth of American exceptionalism in order to run roughshod over international agreements.
The US is simply not a credible partner in any negotiations with an adversary absent external mechanisms to enforce compliance.
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