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The US special envoy to Iran on Sunday chilled expectations that a new nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was imminent as 11 months of talks stalled amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
”I can’t be confident it is imminent. … A few months ago we thought we were pretty close as well,” Robert Malley said at the Doha Forum international conference in Qatar.
“In any negotiations, when there’s issues that remain open for so long, it tells you something about how hard it is to bridge the gap. ”
But Malley’s assessment of the Biden administration’s efforts to revive the 2015 deal brokered by the Obama White House was at odds with comments from an Iranian official.
“Yes, it’s imminent. It depends on the political will of the United States,” Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at the conference.
Following his election, President Biden said he wanted to explore rejoining the accord that former President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
The deal, which would lift crippling economic sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program, has hit a number of stumbling blocks during negotiations in Vienna.
It also faces stiff opposition in Israel and in some countries in the Gulf who fear that the agreement doesn’t go far enough to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
They also warn that easing the sanctions would provide Iran with an influx of billions of dollars in revenue the ruling mullahs would use to back hostile militant groups in the region.
Since Trump backed out of the deal, Tehran has claimed the US violated the tenets of the accord and has ramped up its nuclear program by breaching the limits on enriching uranium and employing advanced centrifuges.
But the talks have hit a snag on Iran’s insistence that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be removed from foreign terrorist organization designation.
“IRGC is a national army and a national army being listed as a terrorist group certainly is not acceptable,” Kharrazi said.
Tehran also wants assurances that no future American president will be able to withdraw from the deal.
At the same time, Russia, which was among the world powers signing on to the 2015 accord and has been heavily sanctioned over its invasion of Ukraine, wanted guarantees that if the deal is restored the sanctions will not affect trade with Iran.
Recently, however, the Kremlin has walked back threats it would scuttle a renewed agreement unless its demands were met.
Amid the recent developments, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Jerusalem on Sunday to dampen fears that Iran could emerge a nuclear power if an accord is reached.
“When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye,” Blinken said at a news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. “We are both committed, both determined that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Blinken echoed the administration’s belief that binding Iran to an agreement “is the best way to put Iran’s program back in the box it was in.”
He said the US commitment to Iran not acquiring a nuclear weapon is “unwavering,” and vowed to cooperate with Israel to counter Iran’s “aggressive behavior” in the Middle East.
But Lapid said Israel, which is not a party to the agreement, retains the right to take military action against Iran if it is deemed necessary.
“Israel and the United States will continue to work together to prevent a nuclear Iran. At the same time, Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Anything,” Lapid said.
“From our point of view the Iranian threat is not theoretical. The Iranians want to destroy Israel. They will not succeed, we will not let them,” he said.
With Post wires
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