Iranians Wary Of Russia’s Proactive Role In Nuclear Talks

In an interview with Channel 12 on Friday, Lapid answering a question about Israel’s military ability to attack and destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, said, “Israel has capabilities, some of which the world, and even some experts in the field, cannot even imagine. And Israel will protect itself against the Iranian threat.”

As world powers try to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), abandoned by former US president Donald Trump, Israel is concerned of a new agreement that would not permanently restrict Iran’s nuclear program, while lifting sanctions giving Tehran a financial lifeline.

The foreign minister also repeated an earlier position that if Israel feels threatened by Iran’s nuclear advances, it could attack without necessarily informing the Biden administration, which is pursuing a new accord with Iran.

“Israel will do whatever it needs to do to protect its security. And we don’t need anybody’s permission for that. That’s been the case since the first day we established this state,” he said. He also added that “Israel is not against a good deal, it is only against the wrong deal.”

Speaking to media, including Iran International’s reporter in Vienna after Thursday's talks, Mikhail Ulyanov said Russia was willing to remove any uranium enriched by Iran since 2019 that surpasses the limits of the 2015 agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). He added that no decision had yet been taken.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in November that Iran had stockpiled 2,490kg of enriched uranium – way above the 300kg cap allowed under the JCPOA. This included 114kg of uranium enriched to 20 percent, and 18kg to 60 percent, neither of which is permitted under the 2015 agreement, which limited domestic enrichment to 3.67 percent.

Ulyanov added that it remained possible that Russia would implement a joint project with Iran to help produce stable isotopes − which have a broad variety of applications including agricultural and medical − at Iran's Fordow enrichment facility.

Such work requires uranium enriched to at least 20 percent. Under the terms of the JCPOA, Iran was required to import such ‘highly enriched uranium’ where needed for medical and other civil purposes, including the Tehran Research Reactor, but this became problematic when the United States left the JCPOA and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.

Moscow ceased its co-operation with Iran over producing isotopes at the Fordow facility in 2019 when the US revoked a waiver ‘allowing’ Moscow to engage in the project without the threat of punitive American action. After Russia's withdrawal, Behrouz Kamalvandi, deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI), said Iran was able to produce 11 different types of isotopes without Russia's help.

Agreement by mid-February?

Ulyanov described the latest round of talks this week in positive terms and said an agreement on restoring the JCPOA was realistic by the first half of February although several important political and technical issues remained. "We talk about a multipage draft, you can't just identify just one or two problematic areas," he noted.

Asked about "verification of the lifting of sanctions,” Ulyanov said it was up to Iran to specify exactly what it wanted, and that other parties to the deal were looking for ways to provide Iran with some guarantee the US would not again renege on commitments: "I believe nobody here wants a repetition of the previous exercise in a couple of years."

Before his return to Tehran, as talks broke for three days Thursday, Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani said the latest round had focused on lifting sanctions, with “relatively good progress” made, and on verification. A western diplomat involved in the talks told Iran International Wednesday that indirect exchanges between the Iranian and US delegation had picked up pace.

"Nuclear technology…can play an important role for other industries,” Mohammad Eslami told a seminar of nuclear science and technology professors at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

“We need to give special attention to this industry for the growth…of the country's industries. Stopping at this sensitive stage will lead to disillusionment of experienced forces and the country's elite youth in the field.”

Eslami’s speech came as discussions continued in Vienna between Iran and world powers over restoring the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which imposed strict limits on the country’s nuclear program and opened its facilities to stringent inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Eslami extolled the role of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in encouraging work on nuclear technology. While the share of nuclear power in electricity production is so far minimal, Tehran wants to build more plants to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Iran's only nuclear power plant, launched in Bushehr in southern Iran in 2011, contributed only 1.6 percent of electricity produced in calendar year 1399 (21 March 2020 – 20 March 2021). Tehran has agreements with Russia to build two more reactors in Bushehr and last week said it had told Moscow it wanted to use domestically produced fuel in the plant.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is solely for generating electricity and other peaceful purposes including medicine and agriculture. But between 2006 and 2015 the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed eight resolutions on Iran's nuclear program, including one in December 2006 imposing sanctions.

Iran's nuclear program began in the 1950 with US help and Tehran ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1970. In 2002, the opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), then based in Iraq and allied to Saddam Hussein, claimed to expose ‘secret’ Iranian facilities, including the Natanz site, which had not been declared to the IAEA because, Iran said, reporting nuclear material at the site was required under the NPT Safeguards Agreement only 180 days before any was introduced, which it had not been. But later the IAEA found traces of radioactive material at other undeclared sites.

UNSC sanctions were lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but President Donald Trump in 2018 left the agreement and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in Iran.

Iran’s economy that had already suffered setbacks because of previous international sanctions, entered a new phase of serious crisis in 2018, with high double-digit inflation and a rapidly falling national currency.

In February 2021, vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri said US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions had cost Iran $100 billion in lost revenues, and in May that foreign currency reserves had dropped from $100 billion to just $5 billion. Other spoke of up to $200 billion loss due to the current US sanctions.

Iranian critics of Tehran’s policies and the opposition say that Islamic Republic’s enmity with the United States and its nuclear program have cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars over decades both in money spent and revenues lost. If Iran needs nuclear research for peaceful purposes, that is something available to most countries and there is no need for an ever-expanding, secretive program.

“Iran is racing forward while Bennett remains silent and buckles before it, “Netanyahu wrote in a Hebrew tweet Thursday.“The Bennett government is dangerous for Israel.”

Bennett said on Tuesday that Israel would not automatically oppose any agreement reached between Iran and world powers in Vienna. “We are not automatic naysayers. We’re taking a practical approach… Unlike others, we’re not looking to fight for the sake of fighting; rather, we’re trying to bring a result.”

The commitment by the United States administration of President Joe Biden to work to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal wrong-footed Israel, which opposed the agreement and is widely held responsible for cyber and military attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites. Bennett, who replaced Netanyahu in June, has reportedly felt a cold shoulder from Biden.

In December Bennett urged world powers to take a far harder line against Tehran in Vienna, telling the Israeli cabinet that Iran “cannot enrich uranium and negotiate at the same time” and “must begin to pay a price for its violations.”

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported the meeting saying that the European Union representative at the talks Enrique Mora also took part in the meeting with diplomats from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Negotiations began in April to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, to bring the United States back into the agreement after former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal saying it was inadequate to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

IRNA reiterated recent optimism expressed by Tehran and Moscow about the chances of an eventual agreement, although the United States and the European troika (E3) have been guarded regarding Iran’s conduct in the negotiations, demanding a faster process.

World powers remaining in the agreement, Russia, China and the E3, met with US representatives in Vienna on Wednesday. The US is not directly participating in the formal JCPOA meetings but is in essence negotiating with Iran through its European allies.