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Iran: Nuclear Deal Can be Reached if US is Pragmatic

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut, Lebanon March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut, Lebanon March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
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Iran: Nuclear Deal Can be Reached if US is Pragmatic

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut, Lebanon March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib in Beirut, Lebanon March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

The revival of a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers can happen in the short term if the United States shows pragmatism in Vienna negotiations, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday.

"If the United States is pragmatic, a nuclear deal can be reached in the short term," he said during a news conference in Beirut, adding that the vital issue of sanctions relief for Iran was not yet fully resolved.

"Instead of wasting time by playing with words and time, the United States should take the right path and act pragmatically. We are ready for a good, strong and stable agreement, but not at the price of our red lines," Reuters quoted him as saying.

The talks were close to an agreement until Russia made last-minute demands of the United States, insisting that sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine would not hurt its trade with Iran.

On Wednesday, Amirabdollahian said during a trip to Damascus that Iran and world powers are closer to an agreement in Vienna than ever before.

But US officials have been more cautious in their assessment of efforts to revive the accord, which would curb Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting tough sanctions on Iran's economy.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday the United States and its allies have made progress in Iran nuclear talks but issues remain, and it is unclear if they will be resolved.

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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

Iran on Saturday hinted it would be willing to negotiate on a nuclear agreement with the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but that it has conditions.
Last Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Ali Larijani, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Iran and the US are now in a new position concerning the nuclear file.
In a post on X, he said, “If the current US administration say they are only against Iran’s nuclear weapons, they must accept Iran’s conditions and provide compensation for the damages caused.”

He added, “The US should accept the necessary conditions... so that a new agreement can be reached.”
Larijani stated that Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, thus causing damage to Iran, adding that his country started increasing its production of 60% enriched uranium.
The Iran nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s first administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed a sanction regime of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
In retaliation, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium to 60% — close to the 90% threshold required to develop a nuclear bomb.
It also began gradually rolling back some of its commitments by increasing its uranium stockpiles and enriching beyond the 3.67% purity -- enough for nuclear power stations -- permitted under the deal.
Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear program and barring UN inspectors.
Most recently, Iran escalated its confrontations with the Agency by announcing it would launch a series of “new and advanced” centrifuges. Its move came in response to a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235).
Shortly after the IAEA passed its resolution last Thursday, Tehran spoke about the “dual role” of IAEA’s chief, Raphael Grossi.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Azizi said, “The statements made by Grossi in Tehran do not match his actions in Vienna.”
And contrary to the statements of Azizi, who denied his country’s plans to build nuclear weapons, Tehran did not originally want to freeze its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Friday that IAEA inspectors were scheduled to come immediately after the meeting of the Board of Governors to evaluate Iran’s capacity, “with those capacities remaining for a month without any interruption in enrichment at 60% purity.”
Iran’s news agency, Tasnim, quoted Kamalvandi as saying that “the pressures resulting from the IAEA resolution are counterproductive, meaning that they increase our ability to enrich.”
He added: “Currently, not only have we not stopped enrichment, but we have orders to increase the speed, and we are gradually working on that."