US Official: Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal Not a Question of Who Goes 1st

An Iranian flag outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1,200 Kms south of Tehran, April 3, 2007. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI
An Iranian flag outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1,200 Kms south of Tehran, April 3, 2007. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI
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US Official: Reviving Iran Nuclear Deal Not a Question of Who Goes 1st

An Iranian flag outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1,200 Kms south of Tehran, April 3, 2007. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI
An Iranian flag outside the building housing the reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port town of Bushehr, 1,200 Kms south of Tehran, April 3, 2007. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI

Who might take the first step to resume compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is not an issue for the United States, a US official said on Friday, suggesting greater flexibility on the part of Washington.

“That’s not the issue, who goes first,” the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

“Like, we are going to go at 8, they are going to go at 10? Or they go at 8, we go at 10? That’s not the issue,” the official said. “The issue is do we agree on what steps are going to be taken mutually.”

The Biden administration has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the deal, under which US and other economic sanctions on Tehran were removed in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program to make it harder to develop a nuclear weapon -- an ambition Tehran denies.

US President Joe Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran, after waiting more than a year, to violate some of the pact’s nuclear restrictions in retaliation.

The United States and Iran have yet to agree even to meet about reviving the deal and are communicating indirectly via European nations, Western officials have said.

The odds of their making progress to revive the deal before Iran holds a presidential election in June have dwindled after Tehran opted to take a tougher stance before returning to talks, officials have said.

In a speech on Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Washington must ease sanctions before Tehran would resume compliance.

The US official sought to dispel what he said was an erroneous view that the United States insists on Iran’s full compliance before Washington would take any steps to resume its own commitments.
He also said it was not the US stance that Tehran must take a first step to comply before Washington would take a step.

“It is absolutely not our position that Iran has to come into full compliance before we do anything,” the official said.

“As for, if we agree on mutual steps, like we’ll do X, they do Y, the issue of sequence will not be the issue. I don’t know who would go first. I mean we could – it could be simultaneous,” he said. “There’s a thousand iterations but ... I can tell you now, if this breaks down, it’s not going to be because of that.”

He added: “We will be pragmatic about that.”

Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine last year when he was a presidential candidate, Biden said: “Tehran must return to strict compliance with the deal. If it does so, I would rejoin the agreement.”

That language, echoed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials since Biden took office on Jan. 20, has been widely taken to mean Iran had to make the first move to comply.

The US official, however, disputed this.

“It doesn’t say when,” the official said. “It is not a statement about sequence.”

Robert Einhorn, a nonproliferation expert at the Brookings Institution think tank, said he had not understood Biden’s Foreign Affairs article to mean Iran necessarily had to go first, “although it could certainly be read that way.”

“Several other formulations administration officials have used -- such as ‘the US will return to compliance if Iran does the same’ -- seem quite neutral on sequence and don’t suggest to me that Iran must go first,” Einhorn said.



Israel Plans to Appeal ICC Arrest Warrants for Alleged Gaza War Crimes

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Monday Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Monday Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)
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Israel Plans to Appeal ICC Arrest Warrants for Alleged Gaza War Crimes

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Monday Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses lawmakers in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem. Monday Nov. 18, 2024. (AP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Israel plans to appeal the International Criminal Court’s recent decision to issue arrest warrants against him and his former defense minister over alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The court last week issued the arrest warrants, accusing Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes for actions during Israel’s war in Gaza. The court said there was reasonable grounds to believe the two leaders bear responsibility for using “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to Gaza and have intentionally targeted civilians.

Both men have condemned the decision and accused the court of anti-Israeli bias and undermining Israel’s right to self-defense.

Netanyahu said he discussed the matter Wednesday with Republican US Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is leading an effort in the US Congress to impose sanctions against the court and countries cooperating with it.

Netanyahu’s office said Israel also informed the ICC on Wednesday of “its intention to appeal to the court along with a demand to delay implementation of the arrest warrants.” It said the appeal would argue the warrants lacked any “legal or factual basis.”

Israel and the US are not members of the ICC, and the court does not have jurisdiction to make arrests on Israeli territory. But both men could be subject to arrest if they enter any of the court’s member states, which include allies like the UK, France and Italy.