Biden Admin Discussed A Partial Iran Deal With Allies - Axios
The Biden Administration has been entertaining the idea of a partial nuclear deal with Iran and has discussed it with allies, Axios reported on Monday.
The Biden Administration has been entertaining the idea of a partial nuclear deal with Iran and has discussed it with allies, Axios reported on Monday.
According to a report by Barak Ravid, its correspondent in Israel, Axios said that according to ten Israeli and Western sources the administration shared the plan with allies.
In exchange for freezing Iran’s uranium enrichment at 60 percent the US would ease some sanctions. If true, Iran would gain the advantage of being a few months away from producing 90-percent enriched uranium needed for a nuclear weapon and enjoy the benefits of sanctions relief.
The report says that Israeli officials told the Biden team that Iran would be threading on dangerous ground that could lead to an Israeli military strike if it enriches above the 60-percent level.
Since September when nuclear talks reached a deadlock the Biden administration has been insisting that it is no longer focused on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA. The White House has been insisting on Iran respecting human rights and refraining from supplying weapons to Russia, in what seems to be a new and tougher position regarding the Iranian regime.
A US National Security Council spokesman told Axios that the administration is “absolutely committed to ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, and we still believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that objective,” but rejected the report of a partial deal as second-hand rumors, insisting that “nearly all such rumors are false.”.
Ulyanov said on Monday that the talks to restore the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic remains at an impasse, noting that chances of completing the negotiation process are very small.
The volte-face comes despite Ulyanov usual optimism, as the only voice who kept vouching for the success of Vienna talks with tweets about the prospect of restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iranian nuclear program.
“Formally, a draft package solution remains on the negotiating table, providing for a phased return of Iran to the fulfillment of its obligations under the JCPOA and the lifting of illegitimate US extraterritorial sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ulyanov said.
“This package is the result of intensive and lengthy negotiations in Vienna with the participation of Russia, Iran, China, the Eurotroika, the United States and the EU Foreign Service, which acted as a coordinator,” he added.
Russia was an active player in the talks from April 2021 to February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine. The negotiations in Vienna ended in early March. The chief US negotiator Robert Malley was often meeting with Ulyanov to discuss the talks.
The last push by the EU to broker a deal in August 2022 reached a deadlock amid key disagreements between Tehran and Washington, as well as the Islamic Republic’s vague response to the IAEA about uranium traces at several sites.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of Iran's atomic agency told a press conference on March 15 that “If there will be further questions, we will answer and talk to each other to determine how these issues can be followed up,” referring to issues related to the IAEA.
The IAEA discovered three undeclared locations in 2019 with traces of uranium. The locations dated back to before 2003 when Iran had a secret nuclear program. The UN nuclear watchdog has been demanding satisfactory answers about the three sites but it says that so far Tehran’s explanations have not been technically credible.
Tehran is now seeking to restore the nuclear agreement to see the sanctions lifted, but US officials have repeatedly said their focus is not on the revival of the JCPOA at the moment. Meanwhile, the IAEA confirmed earlier this year that its inspectors had found particles of enriched uranium with a purity of 83.7 percent at Fordow enrichment facility near Tehran.
However, following a visit to Tehran earlier this month, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran is ready to cooperate on the three locations and agreed to re-install additional monitoring equipment such as cameras at nuclear sites.
Grossi stressed that agreements still need to be discussed and he cannot yet guarantee the success of his negotiations with Tehran. After more than three weeks there have been no meetings to resolve issues, despite Grossi’s earlier promises in March that there would be “meetings soon.”
The Israeli premier, scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Friday, is slated to depart on Thursday evening.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, his meetings in London will focus on the need to formulate a “united international front” against Iran in order to stop its nuclear program.
The leaders will also discuss strengthening strategic ties between Israel and the United Kingdom, including increasing security and intelligence cooperation and the war in Ukraine as well as broad developments in the Middle East.
Earlier in the week, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was in London to press Jerusalem’s position about the Islamic Republic’s threat and bolster bilateral economic ties.
The Israeli diplomat signed an agreement called the 2030 Roadmap for UK-Israeli Bilateral Relations, which according to the British Foreign Office “contains detailed commitments for deepening cooperation across the breadth of the Israel-UK relationship, including on trade, cyber, science and tech, research and development, security, health, etc.”
Netanyahu’s trip to London comes on the heels of his visit last week to Berlin, where he met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and other senior German officials. As he stood with Scholz at the Holocaust memorial Platform 17 in Berlin, Netanyahu appeared to compare Iran with the Nazis.
Seemingly alluding to the Islamic Republic rhetoric which calls for the end of the ‘Zionist regime’, he said: “The calls to destroy the Jewish people have not ended. The main lesson we have learned is that when we are faced with such evil, we must stop the evil plans early to prevent a disaster."
A senior Israeli official, who spoke to Iran International on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu's recent visits to Europe aim to convey a strong message that Israel would act alone against Iran and would do whatever it deems necessary against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
“Recent trips to some European countries and meetings with the leaders of these countries are both a message for Europe and a direct message for the Iranian government," the source said, noting that Tehran has "received" this message.
Earlier in the month, Netanyahu met with Italian premier Giorgia Meloni when both called for bolstering bilateral ties. His meeting with Meloni came just after Iran and Saudi Arabia announced a resumption of diplomatic ties, a development that Netanyahu was widely criticized at home for failing to prevent.
On Wednesday, a senior Israeli diplomatic official told Axios that the Israeli government sees the recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran not as a threat, but as an opportunity for Israel’s efforts to normalize relations with the Saudi kingdom.
The official who is directly involved in the efforts said that the war in Yemen has been a major "irritant" in US-Saudi relations in recent years, hampering efforts for Israel-Saudi normalization steps. ”The more relations between the US and Saudi Arabia improve, the easier it will be to work on promoting normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel,” the official said.
On Wednesday, Israel warned the Biden administration and several European countries that Tehran would be entering dangerous territory that could trigger an Israeli military strike if it enriches uranium above the 60-percent level.
According to an International Atomic Energy Agency report from late February, Iran has amassed 87.5 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium. Experts say if uranium is enriched to 90% weapons grade, it would be a sufficient quantity to produce at least one nuclear bomb.
Netanyahu has time and again threatened military action against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program as it enriches uranium closer to weapons-grade levels.
On March 9, Netanyahu told Iran International that Tehran is “dangerously moving forward” in its nuclear program, claiming that he returned to the government primarily to make sure that Iran cannot become a nuclear “threshold power”.
The PM’s whirlwind of foreign trips is seen by some as a distraction from the civil uprising happening at home as Israelis protest against proposed legal reforms which would make Netanyahu largely unaccountable. It would also give him a clear way out of criminal charges he faces, though he denies all counts.
The exact time and location of his departure is not yet known even to reporters who will be accompanying Netanyahu during the diplomatic visit to London because protesters have vowed to gather at the site and prevent him from boarding the plane.
