US Secretary Says Iran’s Response ‘Takes Us Backwards’

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Friday that Iran's response to reviving the agreement on its nuclear program is a step "backward,” asserting that Washington will not agree to a deal that doesn’t meet its bottom-line requirements.

European negotiators appeared to be progressing toward reviving the 2015 nuclear agreement after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell put forward the text of the final proposal.

However, the level of optimism declined, and Iran requested amendments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) draft, which the US rejected.

"In the past weeks, we closed some gaps. Iran had moved away from some extraneous demands, demands unrelated to the JCPOA itself," the secretary told reporters in Brussels.

"However, the latest response takes us backward, and we are not about to agree to a deal that doesn't meet our bottom-line requirements."

Blinken held online meetings with his British, French, and German counterparts, who are still party to the agreement.

National security spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday night that President Joe Biden wants to ensure that the US has “other available options" to ensure that Iran does not achieve nuclear weapons capability if efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal fail.

Kirby reiterated that Washington would remain active in pushing for the reimplementation of the agreement, but its patience was "not eternal.”

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the US must “stay away from the ambiguous language in this regard so that a deal will be finalized in the shortest possible time,” according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry statement.

“Iran is always committed to reaching the agreement, but will not accept the US attempt to achieve its own goals through bullying,” Chinese media quoted Abdollahian saying.

Wang said that China would continue to support Iran in safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests, expressing his belief that Iran has the wisdom to properly cope with the changes, firmly protect its fair and lawful rights and interests, and continue to occupy the international moral high ground.

Furthermore, the adviser to the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, Mohammad Marandi, tweeted that "the text [of the agreement] is almost ready," accusing the US of seeking to “buy time."

“The problem has always been the US. Obama violated the deal, Trump tore up the deal & Biden continued with Trump's policies,” he said.

- Recommendations

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded the alarm Wednesday over an increase in Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium by 60 percent, warning that the level is a technical step away from weapons-grade levels.

The latest IAEA report said the agency “is not in a position to assure that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.”

In addition, IAEA officials said they are “increasingly concerned” that Iran has not engaged in the agency’s probe into man-made uranium particles found at three undeclared sites in the country, which has become a key sticking point in the talks for a renewed deal.

IAEA’s Board of Governors is scheduled to hold its quarterly meeting, attended by 35 members, in Vienna the following Monday.

Meanwhile, experts from the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security recommended continuing the IAEA’s investigation of Iran’s violations of nuclear safeguards under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Institute also recommended the IAEA Board of Governors pass a resolution condemning Iran’s non-cooperation and then refer the issue to the UN Security Council.

Experts urged The United States and Europe should refuse Iran’s demands to end the ongoing IAEA investigation as a condition for a revived nuclear deal under the JCPOA framework.

“The West should instead pressure Iran to cooperate with the IAEA by strengthening sanctions, including enacting the so-called snapback of UN sanctions, allowed in case of Iranian non-compliance with the JCPOA.”

At the same time, Iranian lawmaker Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi explained his country's insistence on linking outstanding issues with the IAEA and the nuclear agreement negotiations, saying that resolving these issues would guarantee lifting anti-Iran sanctions.

Jahanabadi told the official IRNA news agency that the West claims the nuclear issues are solely related to the IAEA and Iran, and the problems between the Western powers and Tehran are only associated with those two, but it is incorrect.

He said that Vienna talks are for finding a solution for the nuclear issue, adding that the West may resort to the IAEA Boards of Governors or the UN Security Council to open a new file to start the negotiations from scratch.

- Europe’s Winter and the Chinese model

Jahanabadi reiterated the US wants to conclude the nuclear talks to be able to focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The lawmaker believes that approaching the cold season and experiencing the West-Russia severance of ties, Washington does not have any other alternative than reaching a deal with Iran over its nuclear program to focus on the Ukraine war.

He noted that the US seeks to show the positive effects of the revival of the nuclear deal to public opinion because the prolongation of the current energy crisis can have a destructive impact on the upcoming congressional elections.

Jahanabadi believes it is natural that Tehran wants to get assurances in the current round of negotiations for lifting sanctions and reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, especially after experiencing the US’s withdrawal from the agreement in 2018 and Europeans’ inaction to abide by their commitments under the accord.

The lawmaker indicated that a part of the assurances could be securing the continuation of the presence of companies that will come to Iran to invest, especially in the US, which should avoid putting pressure on the companies to pull out their investments.

Tehran will abide by its commitments under the JCPOA, but the West might resort to making up stories to dissuade foreign companies from investing in Iran, according to Jahanabadi.

Nuclear negotiations began in April 2021 and lasted six rounds before stopping in June due to the Iranian presidential elections.

It took Iran six more months to return to the negotiating table with a new group of negotiators representing the government of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

Negotiations stumbled in March due to obstacles, including Iran's request to remove the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) from the US foreign terrorist organization list.

Iran wants US guarantees to lift sanctions, end the IAEA investigation, and ensure that no US president will withdraw from the nuclear agreement in the future.

Tehran also wants to assert that the sanctions will not target companies investing in Iran.

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.

"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.

“These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orban said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.”

Orban cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick... there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday's missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.”

At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.”

He underlined that the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv.

In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six nonnuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a spoeed of Mach 11, it said.

Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad.

The stricken area was cordoned off and out of public view. With no fatalities reported from the attack, Dnipro residents resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential district of Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration said..

Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were stuffed with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.

US Secretary Says Iran’s Response ‘Takes Us Backwards’