“Time is running out”, warn the negotiators of the agreement before the pause in the talks demanded by Iran, which sees “good progress”
The negotiating teams of Iran, the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom return to give themselves a few days of reflection after a second week of meetings in Vienna to try to revive the nuclear agreement. What is “good progress” for the Iranians is “modest” for the Americans. The Russian envoy, Mikhail Ulyanov, said that the negotiation will resume “quickly” and the coordinator of the European Union (EU), Enrique Mora, recalled that “we have weeks, not months to reach an agreement.” After seven rounds of talks, the eighth may be the final one.
Six years after the historic signing of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Vienna is once again the epicenter of a negotiation marked by the decision taken by Donald Trump in 2018 to withdraw his country from the pact and reimpose sanctions on the Islamic republic. Now the Iranians think that the ball is in Washington’s court and that lifting the penalties should be the first step to return to the agreed text.
Trump kept his electoral promise and did not hesitate to bring down the intense diplomatic work of long years of the Barack Obama team, which ended three decades of confrontation with Iran. A radical departure from the policy of his predecessor, George Bush, who after 9/11 launched a “war on terror” and included the Iranians in the “axis of evil.”
After the eight years of ultra-conservative power of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in 2015 the moderate cleric Hasan Rohani came to power and his Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, accelerated the rapprochement with the West despite strong internal pressure. Zarif and the then Secretary of State, John Kerry, staged the thaw between two opposing countries and broke the taboos in place since the triumph of the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Tehran agreed to limit uranium enrichment to a level of 3.67%, dismantle more than 12,000 centrifuges and the heavy water reactor at the Arak power plant, and open the doors to reviews by researchers from the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA) in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that the United States and Europe had imposed on it for fear that its atomic program would pursue the manufacture of a bomb. The agreement was limited to nuclear activity, but “it also opened the door to regional détente because it was a first step for broader agreements in other fields,” Robert Malley, former Obama adviser and current chief, confessed to this medium in an interview. US negotiator
Levels never seen
All the IAEA reports showed that the Iranians were complying, but Trump said it was “the worst possible deal” and abandoned it. Iran’s response was to take steps away from the agreed text, such as producing uranium metal –necessary to produce atomic fuel, but which can also be used for a nuclear warhead–, enriching uranium to a purity of 60% or starting centrifuges. last generation. Despite sanctions, attacks on its facilities and the murder of one of its main scientists, operations of which Tehran accuses Israel, the Islamic Republic has managed to accelerate its program to levels never seen before and experts consider that it has been reduced the time it would take to get the bomb.
Like Trump, Joe Biden also used the deal during his campaign, but in his case to announce that he would get it back. Months pass and he does not fulfill his promise to lift sanctions for fear that Tehran will use the negotiation to accelerate its atomic program. The same fear that Obama had and that was only resolved after the signing in Vienna of a pact that managed to subject the nuclear activity of the Islamic Republic to international control.
“Curb enthusiasm”
“The time frame is running out.” “We don’t have months left, we have weeks to reach an agreement.” With these words, the EU chief negotiator, Enrique Mora, has shown the pessimism of European diplomats about the course of the negotiation, since the Iranian representation has requested a pause that forces the opening of a new round of talks, the eighth , starting this week. While Mora tries to adjust the agendas of all those involved, the US delegation has returned this weekend to his country.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom consider the break “disappointing”, which has so far achieved some technical progress, but none definitive. “Thanks to the diplomacy of the European Union we now have a common understanding of what will be the text that will serve as the basis for the negotiations on nuclear issues,” declared the spokesman, calling, however, “to curb our enthusiasm. What we have is an agenda of issues to examine, not a set of solutions to accept. The European Parliament asked last week to take steps to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and dismantle the arsenals.
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