US officials revealed that the Vienna talks aimed at getting Iran and the US to return to mutual compliance with the obligations of the nuclear agreement are nearing completion.
However, they stressed that after many months of negotiations, returning to the deal is now subject to a “political decision” from Tehran, which must retract its violations in exchange for lifting the sanctions imposed on it because of its nuclear program.
Remarks from Biden administration officials point out to the signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), having completed the technical side of steps needed to be taken in Washington and Tehran for their return to full compliance with the agreement.
Four years ago, former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, a move which was followed by several violations from Iran.
The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States—plus Germany) together with the European Union.
Today’s statements by Biden administration officials confirm that Washington has taken the political decision to return to the deal and is waiting for a similar resolution by Tehran, a matter which largely falls in the hands of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In an article published by the New York Times, a senior official said that the new deal would not limit Iran’s missile development and would not halt Tehran’s support for terrorist groups or its proxy forces, which have stirred unrest across the Middle East, as some Democrats and nearly all Republicans have demanded.
Iran continues to back proxies like the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq in Iraq.
The deal’s restoration would almost certainly become a campaign issue in the midterm elections in Congress this year, the official told the New York Times.
When Trump exited the original agreement in 2018 — which he called “the worst deal ever” — he promised to force Tehran into new negotiations, saying he would get better terms and also halt the country’s support for the Syrian regime, its funding of terrorist groups and its missile tests.
For President Joe Biden, restoring the deal — and with it, limits on Iran’s production capability — would fulfill a major campaign promise and seal a breach Trump created with Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, which participated in the original agreement along with Russia and China. But it also comes with significant political risks.
Despite the risk involved for Democrats, Biden is prepared to return to the 2015 agreement and “to make the political decisions necessary to achieve that goal,” a senior State Department official said in a presser in which Asharq Al-Awsat participated.
The State Department official said that the negotiations to restore the 2015 agreement were “in a final stretch” and that “all sides” needed to commit to returning to full compliance.
“If our goal is to reach an understanding quickly – which is what we need to do – and to avoid misunderstandings and to avoid miscommunication and to make sure that both sides know exactly what they’re getting into, the optimal way to do that in any negotiation is for the parties that have the most at stake to meet directly,” the official told reporters.
“We’re prepared to meet with Iran if they are prepared to meet with us,” they added, noting that it would be very “regrettable” if the two sides didn’t come together for direct talks, especially since there is little time left.
State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed that “there are only a few weeks left to reach an agreement, and if the talks fail, Washington will increase economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran.”
He referred to the conditions of American prisoners in Iran, saying that “their release (...) is one of our main priorities in the Vienna talks.”
US officials did not provide any details of the new agreement, but restoring the old agreement would mean that all restrictions imposed on Iran’s production of nuclear materials will end in 2030, which means that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will not be able to obtain a “longer and stronger” agreement due to Iranian officials’ refusal.
Iranian negotiators sought written guarantees that the US would not abandon the agreement again, but their American counterparts emphasized that Biden could not provide such guarantees.
Although Iran has not accumulated the same amount of enriched uranium it had before the 2015 agreement, it has taken advanced technical steps to raise the level of enrichment to 60 %, which is closer to the 90 % used to produce nuclear weapons.
“A country enriching at 60 percent is a very serious thing,” Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations body that inspects Iran’s production facilities and verifies compliance with agreements. “Only countries making bombs are reaching this level.”
It is not known whether Tehran will send its 60% enriched fuel to Russia, as it did in the past, or to another country.
Moreover, it is unclear how Israel will respond to any new agreement, given that it has carried out several operations to sabotage Iranian facilities.
The US and Iran also appear to be close to reaching a prisoner swap deal to free four American citizens in exchange for Iranians sentenced for sanctions violations, according to two people familiar with the talks cited by the New York Times.
The senior State Department official said that he could not envision a deal with Iran if Americans were not released, and Iran’s foreign ministry subsequently said it would be open to a prisoner exchange with the US.
