Iran considers the agreement that limited its nuclear program to be almost closed in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctionsbut insists that there are still details and asks for “flexibility” from USA.
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Before midnight, the Iranian authorities responded to the proposal put forward by the European Union (EU) to save the 2015 nuclear pact and expect a reply in two days, Iranian media reported Tuesday.
In his reply to the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Joseph Borrellwhich acts as coordinator of the talks, Iran expressed its opinion on three issues that remain to be resolved in the talks, from its point of view.
“There are differences on three issues, and USA has shown flexibility in two of them, but they must be included in the text,” the official IRNA news agency said.
“The third question is related to the guarantees of the agreement,” IRNA continued.
There are differences on three issues, and the United States has shown flexibility on two of them, but they must be included in the text
According to Western diplomatic sources, the main issues to be resolved for Tehran are guarantees that the United States does not abandon the agreement again as the former president did. donald trump in 2018.
Another pending issue is the Iranian request that an investigation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the origin of trace amounts of uranium found in three places that Iran had not declared.
However, on other issues that in the past prevented an agreement, such as the US sanctions that weigh on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, agreements have been reached.
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There are still doubts about a nuclear deal
The Western diplomatic source, who preferred to remain anonymous, summed up the Iranian response as “yes but no, no but yes.”
“They have not wanted to lose face, but they have not wanted not to answer (to the European proposal),” said the source.
For his part, Mohamed Marandí, Iran’s communication adviser in the nuclear talks, was more optimistic.
“I can’t say there is an agreement, but we are closer than we have been before,” he said on his Twitter account.
Iran negotiates with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and the United States, indirectly, the restoration of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the pact and reimposed economic sanctions against Iran, which in response accelerated its atomic program a year later.
For the past 16 months, world powers and Iran have negotiated the restoration of the agreement, so far to no avail.
In the last round of talks held in Vienna between August 4 and 8, Borrell presented a new proposal to close the agreement, which he defined as the “final text.”
Yesterday the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdolahian, announced that he would respond to the latest proposal from the EU, coordinator of the talks to save the agreement, and seemed to indicate that the signing of the agreement was close.
But he again asked the United States for “flexibility” to close the agreement.
“Our decision is to sign the agreement if our red lines are respected. One of the reasons it has dragged on for so long is because we don’t want to cross those red lines,” Abdolahian said.
The minister even referred to the Iranian Parliament’s complaints about the text. “They say they see problems in the European proposal, well, the other side also has demands,” he said.
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tensions with the United States
In recent weeks, the West’s already difficult relations with Iran have been complicated by the attack on Friday of writer Salman Rushdie against whom Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for his assassination in 1989.
In its first official reaction, the Iranian government yesterday blamed the attack on Rushdie and denied any responsibility.
In addition, the United States last week accused a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of planning the assassination of former US National Security Adviser John Bolton, something that Iranian authorities described as “ridiculous”.
Response of the European Union
Brussels said Tuesday that it is “studying” Iran’s response to the “final text” drawn up by the European Union (EU) to salvage the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program.
“We received Iran’s response on Monday night. We are studying it and we are consulting with the other partners” of the agreement regarding “the way forward,” a spokeswoman for Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, told AFP. facilitator of the recent negotiations in Vienna.
The 2015 Vienna Agreement was signed by Iran, on one side, and the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, and Russia on the other.
Hours before the announcement from Brussels, Tehran said it had sent its response to the “final text” prepared by the European Union.
“Iran sent its written response to a draft of the draft Vienna agreement, and announced that an agreement will be reached if the United States reacts with realism and flexibility,” the official IRNA agency said.
After months of deadlock, talks resumed on August 4 in Vienna for a new attempt to salvage the 2015 international agreement. Borrell presented the current draft agreement on August 8.
The pact, known by its acronym in English (JCPOA), seeks to guarantee the civilian nature of Iran’s nuclear program, accused of wanting to equip itself with a nuclear weapon despite its repeated denials.
After the unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the agreement in 2018, at the initiative of Trump, and the reestablishment of US sanctions, Tehran progressively disinterested in its obligations established in the 2015 agreement.
The objective of the latest talks in Vienna, in which the United States participated indirectly, was precisely to redirect the process and recover a mechanism that guarantees the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Monday that his country would communicate its “final proposals” on the nuclear negotiation before Tuesday.
“The disagreements have to do with three points, in which the United States has verbally expressed its flexibility in two cases, but that should be included in the text,” the Irna agency said without further details.
“The third question has to do with ensuring that the agreement is durable, and that depends on the realism of the United States in reassuring Iran,” the agency added.
The spokesman for the US State Department refused on Monday to clarify whether Washington will lift the sanctions in the event of an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, as Tehran demands.
EFE and AFP
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