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Divisions in Iran over the Impact of Ukraine Crisis on Vienna Talks

Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Enrique Mora and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani wait for the start of a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2021. EU Delegation in Vienna/Handout via REUTERS
Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Enrique Mora and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani wait for the start of a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2021. EU Delegation in Vienna/Handout via REUTERS
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Divisions in Iran over the Impact of Ukraine Crisis on Vienna Talks

Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Enrique Mora and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani wait for the start of a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2021. EU Delegation in Vienna/Handout via REUTERS
Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Enrique Mora and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani wait for the start of a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria December 3, 2021. EU Delegation in Vienna/Handout via REUTERS

The Iranian media is divided over the Russian position and the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on Vienna talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal with world powers.

Nuclear negotiations are nearing the finish line with an announcement expected soon on a new deal to lift sanctions in exchange for renewed controls on uranium enrichment.

Parties supporting the 2015 nuclear agreement expressed optimism as the US State Department asserts it will maintain contact with Russia on issues considered key to its national security interests. These include talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

Analysts say the repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis on the efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear pact depend on future developments, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.

The heightened tension may affect the talks, analysts note, warning against booting Russia off the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) or imposing sanctions targeting its oil and gas exports.

The state-run ISNA news agency has recently tried to answer frequently asked questions on the link between the Ukrainian crisis and the nuclear talks in Vienna.

Its analyst cited two factors that would have an impact on the talks. The first is linked to the phase the negotiations have reached, and the second is the depth of the Ukrainian crisis and possible military escalation.

The agency dismissed any long-term agreement between the West and Russia on outstanding issues.

According to Fararu news agency experts, the failure of talks will transfer the technical-political matter into a security issue, which Russia does not want.

Iran must pursue its interests regardless of the circumstances, former Deputy Foreign Minister Javad Larijani told IRNA, expressing “optimism” about the future of talks.

Former Iranian MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told Arman Meli newspaper that Russians didn’t allow the deal to be signed before invading Ukraine.

He said the optimism expressed by Russia's representative at the talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, is a “big lie.”

Falahatpisheh further warned that Russia would sell the agreement in exchange for winning the war on Ukraine.

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Ships with Missile Propellant Ingredient Reportedly Set to Sail from China to Iran

A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Ships with Missile Propellant Ingredient Reportedly Set to Sail from China to Iran

A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
A picture shows copies of Iranian daily newspapers, including 'Sazandegi' (C) showing on its front page a picture of US President Donald Trump and a headline in Farsi reading 'Again Trump' at a newsstand in Tehran on January 21, 2025. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Two Iranian cargo vessels carrying an ingredient for missile propellant will sail from China to Iran in the next few weeks, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing intelligence from security officials in two Western countries.

The reported transactions could make the Chinese entities involved subject to US sanctions aimed at curbing Iran's weapons programs, as the two Iranian vessels are already under US sanctions.

The FT said the Iranian-flagged ships, the Golbon and the Jairan, are expected to carry more than 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, which is used to make ammonium perchlorate, the main ingredient for solid propellant for missiles.

Ammonium perchlorate is among chemicals controlled by the Missile Technology Export Control Regime, a voluntary international anti-proliferation body, Reuters reported.

The FT report cited two unnamed officials as saying that the sodium perchlorate could produce 960 tons of ammonium perchlorate, enough to make 1,300 tons of propellant, which could fuel 260 mid-range Iranian missiles.

The officials said the sodium perchlorate was being shipped to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and that 34 20-foot (six-meter) containers containing the chemical had been loaded onto the Golbon, which departed the Chinese island of Daishan on Tuesday and was off the coast of Ningbo in China’s Zhejiang province early on Wednesday.

The FT said the Jairan is expected to depart China with 22 containers in early February. The officials told the FT that both ships, owned by Iranian entities, were expected to make the three-week voyage to Iran without making any port calls.
The officials said the chemicals were loaded onto the Golbon at Taicang, a port just north of Shanghai, and were destined for Bandar Abbas in southern Iran on the Arabian Gulf.

The FT said the officials could not say if Beijing was aware of the shipments.

The spokesperson for China's Washington embassy, Liu Pengyu, said he was not familiar with the situation reported by the FT.

Doug Jacobson, a Washington-based sanctions lawyer, said that while UN sanctions on Iran's missile program were no longer in effect, the Chinese entities involved in the reported transactions could face US sanctions against dealings with both the IRGC and the already sanctioned vessels.

Vann Van Diepen, a retired US non-proliferation official, said Chinese entities had been helping Iran's missile program since the 1980s. He said Iran probably had its own ammonia perchlorate production facility by now, but may need feedstock to make the chemical.

"It's probably not sort of a continuous flow thing," he said. "But from time to time, over these many years, these kinds of shipments will go on."

The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but an official there, who did not want to be identified, said that if the missiles were designed to be used by
Russia in Ukraine, the shipment could be subject to US sanctions to curb dealings with Moscow.

In 2023, The United States imposed sanctions on people and entities in China, Hong Kong and Iran, including Iran's defense attache in Beijing, over accusations they helped procure parts and technology for Iran's ballistic missile development. It imposed similar sanctions on individuals and entities last year.