© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Flags of Iran and the United States are printed on paper in this illustration taken January 27, 2022. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration / File Photo
By Parisa Hafezi
Russia’s foreign minister said in Moscow on Wednesday (Reuters) – Iran needs stronger guarantees from Washington about the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal, its foreign minister said in Moscow on Wednesday, adding added that the United Nations atomic watchdog should drop “politically motivated probes” into Tehran’s nuclear activities.
After 16 months of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on August 8 that the EU had made a final offer to overcome the deadlock for the restoration of the agreement. favorable.
Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amirabdollahian, said Tehran was carefully considering Washington’s response to the text delivered to Iran by the EU last week as the coordinator of the nuclear negotiations.
“Iran is carefully reviewing the text drafted by the EU … We need stronger assurances from the other side to have a lasting agreement,” Amirabdollahian told a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart. in Moscow.
Amirabdollahian did not detail “stronger guarantees”, but during months of negotiations with Washington in Vienna, Tehran asked the US to ensure that no future US president abandons the deal like the former. US Donald Trump did in 2018.
President Joe Biden cannot make such guarantees because the agreement is more of a political understanding than a legally binding treaty.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby (NYSE:) said he had not yet seen the Iranian foreign minister comment.
“So I don’t know what guarantees he’s talking about,” Kirby told reporters. The US is waiting for a response from the EU and Iran.
“As I said earlier, we’re cautiously optimistic, we’re also pragmatic and discerning, and we recognize that there are still gaps and we’re trying to close those gaps in a way that’s clear to us. good faith, negotiating through appropriate channels and not through the public,” Kirby added.
The last major man in Iran’s nuclear dispute with the West, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has not commented on the nuclear negotiations in his public speeches for months. .
It is US, EU and UN sanctions on Tehran’s nuclear program that have forced Khamenei to tentatively support a 2015 treaty between Tehran and major powers to limit its nuclear program in exchange for a deal. take the lifting of sanctions.
But three years later, Trump left the treaty and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to breach the treaty’s nuclear limits, such as rebuilding its uranium stockpile. enrich it, refine it to higher fission purity, and install advanced centrifuges to speed up production.
A former Iranian official said: “It will be a great embarrassment for the supreme leader if Washington withdraws from the deal again. “That’s one of the reasons behind Tehran’s insistence on the issue.”
The nuclear deal appeared near resurgence in March. However, indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington later broke down on a number of issues, including Tehran’s insistence that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) built its probes. on traces of uranium found at three undeclared sites before the nuclear treaty was revived.
“The agency should close this case… Such politically motivated demands are unacceptable to Iran,” Amirabdollahian said.
Tehran’s request risks undermining efforts to save the treaty. An Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that shutting down the IAEA investigation was “the supreme leader’s red line”.
Kirby said U.S. officials believe the parties are closer than in previous months, “largely because of Iran’s willingness to give up some of its demands that are unrelated to the deal.”
