The Biden administration has rejected Israeli rumors about Washington’s Special Envoy Robert Malley being sidelined from negotiations for the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The US administration also denied other rumors spread by a senior Israeli official who had declared nuclear talks with Iran dead.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said late on Monday in a briefing that Iran has tripled its uranium enrichment capabilities.
“Iran has increased its ability to enrich uranium by three-fold at the Fordow facility,” said Gantz, adding that according to the JCPOA, Iran is barred from enriching uranium at that site.
Gantz’s statements coincided with what US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Monday evening about Iran’s response to the European proposal to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement making the possibility of reaching an agreement in the near term “unlikely.”
In light of Iran’s latest reply to a draft proposal by the European Union, prospects for the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in the near future are not looking good, Blinken said.
An Israeli diplomatic official, who requested anonymity, told media that an agreement may only be achieved after the US congressional midterm elections next November.
Nevertheless, the official pointed out that Israel is actively lobbying behind the scenes with members of the US Senate and House of Representatives to persuade them to support its positions on a nuclear agreement with Iran.
On Monday, a senior Israeli official told Israeli reporters accompanying Prime Minister Yair Lapid on a state visit to Germany that Jerusalem’s recent engagement with the Biden administration on talks to revive the nuclear deal had resulted in US decision-making being placed “out of the hands of Malley’s camp by now.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
In an initial reaction to the anonymous Israeli comments, a State Department spokesman had rejected the suggestion that Malley had been sidelined, or that the US had concluded that efforts to revive the deal had hit a dead end.
“We have a very close dialogue with Israel and other allies and partners about Iran, including the JCPOA. Special Envoy Malley is an integral part of those talks,” read a statement from the State Department Monday, distributed in the name of an anonymous spokesperson.
