Biden Administration Still Wants To Pursue Nuclear Deal With Iran
The United States has reiterated that it still believes a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is in its interest, and it continues to pursue the diplomatic path.
The United States has reiterated that it still believes a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is in its interest, and it continues to pursue the diplomatic path.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters on Monday that “We will continue to forge ahead with efforts, with dialogue via the – via our partners, including the European Union, to seek to achieve a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA for as long as we determine that a mutual return to compliance would be in our interests.“
Earlier this year, the Biden administration had said that it would consider the end of February as the latest date it was willing to wait for progress in the talks.
In mid-March, negotiation that started in April 2021 came to a standstill as Iran demanded the removal of its Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from a US list of terrorist organizations. Washington has not agreed to the condition, saying that i tis ready to remove nuclear sanctions, but the terror designation is a separate issue for which Iran has to negotiate over other issues.
Price reiterated that position on Monday. „If Iran wants to seek – wants to put issues on the table that are outside the confines of the JCPOA, Iran will of course have to be in a position to make concessions on those issues. That’s just the very nature of any negotiation.“
Asked if he had any comment about reports that the European Union coordinator in the Vienna talks wants to visit Iran again, Price said the US supports his efforts.
Opposition to retoring the JCPOA has grown in the US, especially rejection of any concession on delisitng the IRGC.
Reformist Ashraf Boroujerdi has said, following a meeting with Raisi along with two dozen politicians last week, that "Raisi himself has come to the conclusion that a nuclear agreement should be reached, but some others who have the upper hand in the government are adamant that Tehran should not sign an agreement with Washington." However, she did not name the elements she believed have the upper hand in making decisions for the government.
Meanwhile, Iranian academic and reformist political activist Sadegh Zibakalam says Iranian officials were misled to believe that Russia will occupy Ukraine in less than one week and .
The officials believed Russia would plant a puppet government in Kiyv and become the master of the world and Iran would benefit from the situation as Russia's ally, said Zibakalm in a live Instagram video as reported by Didban Iran [Iran Monitor] website.
Zibakalam, who was sure in the interview that Iran and the United States will inevitably come to an agreement, expressed concern over "the regional countries' alliance against Iran and the destructive role played by Russia and China."
He said: "We are upbeat about the rise in oil price, and we know that President Ebrahim Raisi is right about a boost in Iran's oil exports, because with the United States deliberately ignoring its sanctions on Iran's oil industry Iran has been selling oil to some Chinese private companies at prices no one is aware of. However, if the Americans make sure that there will be no agreement with Iran, they will twist the arms of the Chinese in a way that they would forget about purchasing oil from Iran."
Zibakalam further added that "a favorable breeze is reaching Iran from the direction of the United States. However, it appears that the Raisi administration has no strategy about how to benefit from the situation." Zibakalam went on to say that "We know today that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had come to an agreement with the US side before President Ebrahim Raisi took office, but the new administration initially ignored Araqchi's achievement before finally realizing that the negotiations should take place based on the frameworks provided by Araqchi."
Zibakalam then quoted former Culture Minister Ali Jannati as saying that "it was agreed in the talks by Araqchi that the IRGC should be delisted as a terrorist organization and the sanctions against it should be lifted."
The academic said that the United States has now realized it has not managed to stop Iran from high-level uranium enrichment, and Iran's missile development program as well as cut Iran's long hands from the region, at least in the short run. As a result, United States has come to the conclusion that it should adopt a milder policy toward Iran. However, Iran has misunderstood this soft approach. Zibakalam stressed that Iran has wrongly interpreted the change in US policy as a retreat.
In an interview with Didban Iran, former diplomat Fereidoun Majlesi also said that the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) does not want to be removed from the US list of terrorist organizations because in that case Iran would sign a new nuclear agreement with the United States.
Majlesi argued that the IRGC has an international agenda that may not be implemented if there is an agreement between Iran and the United States. He said that is also the reason why there is a resistance in Iran against abiding by the regulations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Like Zibakalam, Majlesi also agreed that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made a nuclear agreement with the United States harder to reach. "Iran's official support for Russia in the hope of benefitting from Russia's measure adversely affected the negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement (JCPOA). But Russians only follow their own interests. There is no reason for them to follow Iran's interests because they do not need us," said Majlesi.
