Iran International
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman said Monday that Tehran and the European Union had agreed that stalled nuclear talks should resume "as soon as possible.”
"So far no decision has been made as to where and what level the meeting should be held but it's on agenda," Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters at his weekly press briefing.
Referring to Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's Friday phone talk with EU foreign policy Chief, Josep Borrell, Khatibzadeh said the two sides had agreed that a pause since mid-March in Vienna talks to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers was not “helpful.”
"We would have been in Vienna, obviously, if the US had made a clear response,” Khatibzadeh said, reiterating Iran’s view that Washington was blocking agreement in the talks, that have struggled to agree which US sanctions violate the 2015 agreement, and exactly how the Iranian nuclear program should be returned to the limits of the agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
Borrell had expressed frustration over the pause in the talks and called for fresh contacts between Enrique Mora, the senior EU official chairing the Vienna process, and Iran’s lead negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani.
Khatibzadeh said that Bagheri-Kani and Mora were regularly in touch, and that Iran had agreed most issues with other parties to the JCPOA – China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Mora, he said, was left with issues outstanding between Tehran and Washington. Having left the JCPOA in 2018, the US takes part in the Vienna process indirectly.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said the US and Israel had in public reduced these outstanding matters to disagreement as to whether the US current listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ was compatible with the JCPOA. Former US president Donald Trump designated the Guards in 2019 after introducing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.
"Issues between us can neither be reduced [to the delisting] nor be simplified," Khatibzadeh said. He reiterated that all sanctions imposed by Trump needed to go for Iran to gain the economic benefits laid out in the JCPOA.
Prisoners, and elections
The spokesman also dealt with a potential prisoner swap with the US, responding to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Saturday tweet aboutAmericans jailed in Iran that any exchange was an exclusively humanitarian matter. There has been repeated speculation in recent month and weeks over the release Iranian assets frozen abroad, some linking it to a prisoner release and some to the Vienna talks.
Referring to suggestions that President Joe Biden is delaying agreement on JCPOA restoration until after November’s US Congressional elections, Khatibzadeh said, US domestic politics should not determine the outcome of Vienna talks.
In response to a question over Iran's recent announcement of a new factory at Natanz to make nuclear parts, Khatibzadeh the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had full knowledge of the move, which resulted from sabotage at the Karaj site widely attributed to Israel.
" Iran is a member of the Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT),” he said. “We have followed NPT word by word. We transferred our centrifuges according to NPT…We are entitled under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to carry out any actions required to meet our needs.”
Speaking before the Friday prayers in Tehran on April 22, Gen. Hassan Hassanzadeh called those elements "lowly people and those who have sold their soul to the enemy."
Hassanzadeh is a key figure although he is not often mentioned in the media. He is the commander of IRGC forces in the capital Tehran, a fearsome unit that has been often used to suppress popular protests and is tasked with defending the Islamic Republic's centers of power.
Nuclear talks with Iran have come to a standstill since March after Tehran demanded that Washington remove the IRGC from its Foreign Terrorist Organization list.
The Biden administration has said that if Iran wants sanctions relief beyond those imposed for its nuclear activities it should be ready to negotiate over regional issues, effectively meaning limiting its interventions in other countries.
Iran's Foreign Minister had said in March that IRGC commanders are prepared to sacrifice their interest for the greater interests of the Islamic Republic and forego the call for delisting the IRGC to facilitate an agreement between Tehran and Washington.
Hassanzadeh said: "I wish to tell all the enemies and mean elements who have sold their soul to the enemies that the IRGC will never and by no means be limited."
The Commander of the IRGC's naval force Alireza Tangsiri on Thursday announced that Iran will not give up its intention of seeking revenge for the killing of former Qods Force Commander Qasem Soleimani, insisting that the IRGC would never forget the idea of seeking revenge.
The commander of IRGC's ground forces Mohamad Pakpour also claimed that "even the killing of all of US leaders will not be enough as a revenge for the murder of Soleimani."
These comments by IRGC commanders come at a time when many in Iran, including politicians are disappointed with the dim prospects of an agreement that could lift economic sanctions.
Former Iranian diplomat Ghassem Mohebali told Nameh News website that the Iranian government is still not inclined to offer explanations about the contents of any draft agreement with the US side.
"This is partly because of the weakness of Iran's negotiating team and its members' lack of familiarity with the way diplomacy works," he said, adding that "putting forward matters that were not part of the 2015 deal (JCPOA) could also be another hindrance." These matters include the role of the IRGC in the region as well as Iran's ballistic missile program.
He warned that the deadlock could lead to taking Iran’s nuclear breaches to the UN Security Council, where the other side has the right to veto any decision.
Meanwhile, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of hardline daily Kayhan, who is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office said in an interview with Iran's state-owned radio that "the negotiations are not likely to lead anywhere” because the US is creating other issues outside of the nuclear question.
Shariatmadari added that some countries including South Korea are undermining Iran's right and refusing to pay their debts to Tehran fearing that they might be affected by US secondary sanctions. He added that the Americans have linked some of their sanctions to the JCPOA while they have withdrawn from the agreement and are no longer part of the JCPOA.
Shariatmadari further added that the JCPOA was a golden document for the US side while it did not have any benefit for Iran.
Iranian analyst Mehdi Ayati also told Nameh News that he is not optimistic about a possible agreement with Washington, because he believes that the JCPOA ended when former US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in May 2018.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in a Thursday phone call with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mikdad, noting that the diplomatic procedures are working efficiently in the talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“The path of diplomacy works well, and we are not far from reaching a good and lasting agreement,” he said, stressing that “We continue to exchange messages with Americans through the European Union. We have repeatedly emphasized that Iran does not pay attention to [the US] excessive demands and is not willing to retreat from its red lines times”.
Tehran has refused to negotiate with Washington directly during talks in Vienna to revive the JCPOA. European powers and Russia have acted as intermediaries between the two sides.
Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that “if the United States is realistic, we are ready to finalize the agreement in the near future in the presence of the foreign ministers of JCPOA Joint commission in Vienna”.
Eleven months of indirect talks between Iran and the United States to restore the JCPOA have stalled as both sides say political decisions are required by Tehran and Washington to settle the remaining issues.
One of the main issues is Iran’s demand to remove the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations as well as the removal of all ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.
An unnamed US State Department official was quoted by Reuters as saying on Thursday that “if Iran wants sanctions lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they will need to address concerns of ours beyond the JCPOA.”
‘Maximum pressure’ refers to all sanctions imposed by former president Donald Trump, who withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018. While Iran has been demanding their removal as a strict condition to restore the deal, the US expressed willingness to lift only nuclear sanctions.
Trump imposed around 1,500 sanctions on Iran since May 2018, but a majority are sanctions on Iranian officials, individuals and companies for reasons other than the nuclear program. Sanctions were imposed for human rights violations, support for terror groups, violation of banking and export laws, money laundering and similar offences.
Elsewhere in their phone call, Amir-Abdollahian and Mikdad talked about the recent developments in Israel and condemned the raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque.
“We are witnessing Zionist crimes at al-Aqsa Mosque on a daily basis”, the Iranian top diplomat said.
Tensions between Israel and Palestinians have been high since the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan after Israeli police entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound reportedly to facilitate visits by far-right Jews to the holy site. More than 300 Palestinians were arrested and at least 170 wounded during the clashes.
Amir-Abdollahian expressed hope that on the occasion of International Quds Day, an Iranian official holiday in support of Palestinians, which will be marked on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, all Muslim nations will send a powerful message in defense of Palestine and to condemn Israel’s “acts of aggression”.
Mikdad, for his part, condemned “the Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories”, and praised the role of the Islamic Republic in supporting the Palestinian resistance.