An Iranian member of parliament confirmed Saturday that Iranian and US officials held direct unofficial talks in New York, also accusing the administration of President Joe Biden of hindering any agreement between the two sides.
“Despite some negotiations in New York, there is no impending agreement soon because of US obstructions,” Mojataba Tavangar tweeted on Saturday.
“America is trying to get more concessions from Iran in nuclear matters, in exchange for releasing frozen funds, a policy violating the law and in contradiction to Iran’s interests,” Tavangar added.
His comments came two days after Washington and Tehran denied reports saying that the two sides were nearing a temporary deal under which Iran would commit to ceasing its 60 percent-and-beyond uranium enrichment activities in return of less US sanctions.
Tavangar said the US is still attempting to “drag Iran into official direct talks.”
The Nour News website, close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote in a tweet that reports on progress in negotiations and the lifting of US sanctions, are used by the West to destabilize the markets inside Iran.
In recent weeks, the Iranian Rial has risen against the US dollar amid news saying that talks on the release of Tehran’s frozen assets could result in a deal soon. The media reports had mentioned the release of some $27 billion in Iranian assets from frozen bank accounts outside of the country.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the US State Department refused to comment on reports saying Amir Saeed Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, and Robert Malley, the US special envoy on Iran, have had multiple meetings in person.
Deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “I don’t have anything to announce on this front.”
“As you’ve heard me say previously, we have the means to communicate with Iran and deliver messages to them that are in America’s interest to do so. We’re not going to detail the contents of those messages or the means of those deliveries. I don’t have anything additional to add there,” he stated, refusing to elaborate.
Two Iranian officials told Reuters there had been progress but no agreement was imminent. A third said Malley and Irvani met at least three times in the past weeks but gave no details.
“There (has) been some progress and we have exchanged proposals and messages with Americans,” said a senior Iranian official. “Still, there are lots of details that we need to discuss.”
On June 2, the Financial Times said Rob Malley, the US’s Iran envoy, has met several times with Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, who was a senior official at the Supreme National Security Council before being posted to New York in September.
It said the discussions focused primarily on the possibility of a prisoner exchange with Iran.
Since the beginning of 2023, this is the second time reports emerge about a meeting between Iranian officials and Malley in New York.
In January, Iran rejected reports of unofficial talks between the US official in charge of the Iranian file and the top Iranian diplomat in its mission to the United Nations.
According to the Financial Times, diplomats and analysts say potential options include some form of interim deal, or a de-escalatory move by both sides under which Iran reduces its enrichment levels in return for some sanctions relief.
“The prisoner swap is going to be an opener for the talks,” said another diplomat briefed on the talks. “It is unlikely there will be a nuclear deal, but there could be some sort of interim thing, or a freeze.”
Meanwhile in Iran, the state-run ISNA news agency quoted on Wednesday analysts as saying that “the temporary agreement does not mean a return to the nuclear deal, but rather a movement forward for a broader agreement with Iran.”
Also on Wednesday, Haaretz said that in an effort to reach an agreement on a nuclear deal, the contacts between the United States and Iran have made major progress in the past few days. Israel expects an agreement to be reached within a few weeks, with the understandings expected to include an Iranian agreement to stop uranium enrichment at high levels in return for easing sanctions.
Reuters had also mentioned a report saying Iran would cease enriching uranium to purity of 60% or above and continue cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog in return for exporting up to 1 million barrels of oil per day and access to “income and other frozen funds abroad.”
Later, Axios quoted three sources briefed on the issue as saying that Iranian and American officials held indirect talks in Oman in a bid to halt Iran’s nuclear program in return for releasing some of Iran’s frozen assets.
Based on the report, White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk secretly flew to Oman on May 8 to meet with Omani authorities about potential diplomatic outreach to Iran on its nuclear program.
The sources said that there was no meeting between McGurk and the Iranian officials. Omani authorities were standing between the two sides, passing messages as they were in different places.
The sources claim that deterrence was one of the US’s key topics.
The sources said that the US made it plain that Iran will pay a high price if it continues with uranium enrichment at the level required to make a nuclear bomb, which is 90%.
Additionally, Axios purportedly said that the Biden administration and Iran engaged in an indirect message-exchange with the intention of “understanding” how to de-escalate the Iranian nuclear program, Iran’s regional actions, and its alleged involvement in the war in Ukraine.
