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.



Turkish Opposition Party Reelects Chairman Following Arrest of Istanbul Mayor

 Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel delivers a speech, during a CHP convention, in Ankara, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP)
Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel delivers a speech, during a CHP convention, in Ankara, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP)
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Turkish Opposition Party Reelects Chairman Following Arrest of Istanbul Mayor

 Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel delivers a speech, during a CHP convention, in Ankara, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP)
Republican People's Party or (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel delivers a speech, during a CHP convention, in Ankara, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP)

Türkiye's main opposition party reelected its chairman Sunday, two weeks after the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, the party’s highest profile rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ozgur Ozel was reelected at an extraordinary congress of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, which he called to prevent what he said was a plot by the government to appoint a caretaker for the party.

The arrest of Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption charges has ignited large-scale anti-government protests. Imamoglu had emerged as the main challenger to Erdogan’s 22-year rule since he was elected mayor of Istanbul in 2019, overturning a quarter-century of rule by conservative parties.

The opposition claims the charges against Imamoglu are politically motivated, but the government insists the judiciary is independent and free of political interference.

While in prison, Imamoglu was confirmed as the CHP’s presidential candidate for the election scheduled for 2028, but which will likely to take place earlier.

Ozel said he decided to call Sunday's party congress on March 21, two days after Imamoglu's arrest and hours before the alleged government caretaker was to be appointed for CHP.

"They didn’t have the courage to compete with us in service, so instead they attempted to intimidate our municipalities and the opposition by using the might of the government against their rivals," Ozel told the assembly. "They thought they could remain in power by polarizing the public and provoking new conflicts."

Former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and a delegation from the European Parliament's Party of European Socialists visited the CHP headquarters Saturday to offer their support and solidarity with "all people fighting for democracy and the rule of law in Türkiye." Turkish media reported that Papandreou attended Sunday's congress.

Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, suffered a major setback during municipal elections last year, when the CHP retained control over key cities like Istanbul and Ankara while also making huge gains elsewhere.

In the months since that election, many opposition mayors of both the CHP and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, have been replaced by government-appointed caretakers on terrorism charges, which the parties strongly dispute.