NEW DELHI, June 15: The US Vice President JD Vance on Monday claimed that the United States and Iran have already “signed the deal digitally,” a day after President Donald Trump announced that the agreement was complete and would be formally signed on Friday in Switzerland’s Geneva.
Mr Vance told a section of the media that the agreement had already been digitally finalised by both sides, while emphasising that any sanctions relief for Tehran would depend entirely on its compliance with the terms of the deal.
“We already signed the deal digitally yesterday, and there’s been no money released, and that won’t change,” Vance said, responding to a question on whether Iran would receive sanctions relief or access to frozen assets upon signing the agreement.
Iran has also confirmed that the deal will be signed on June 19, but last week it had said there was a possibility that the signing ceremony could be held remotely. Also, there is no clarity on who will attend it on Iran’s behalf, but most likely it could be Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf or Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who have been at the forefront of negotiations for Tehran.
The US Vice President underscored that the deal would be implemented on a performance-based framework, with sanctions relief linked to concrete actions by Iran as per the agreement. “Again, this is a performance-based thing. If we see the Iranians making, for example, taking action to eliminate their stockpile of enriched material, then sanctions relief will follow. If we see the Iranians taking action to allow the kind of verification regime that we need to see to know that they’re not going to build a nuclear weapon, sanctions relief will follow,” he said.
Vance added that the agreement offered Iran an opportunity to reintegrate into the global economy, provided it adhered to the terms of the deal. “This is really about walking down a pathway here where the Iranians will be welcomed into the world economy if they do the right thing,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)