Iran Says Qatari Remarks On Tehran's Readiness To Compromise 'Misrepresented'

“Our view is that the sanctions should be enforced,” Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing Friday in response to questions about Washington’s position on $7 billion of Iranian funds frozen in South Korea and whether the issue would be addressed during President Joe Biden’s visit to South Korea.

Biden arrived in Seoul Friday and will meet with South Korea’s newly elected President Yoon Seok-youl.

“And as long as Iran continues to advance its nuclear program, we should be working with our allies and partners to ensure that we are maintaining the form of economic pressure on them to sharpen the choice to get them to ultimately to agree to what is a perfectly fair and reasonable deal on the table for them in Vienna,” Sullivan who is accompanying Biden in his trip to Korea said but declined to say if the issue of frozen funds would be on the agenda of the two presidents.

Talks in Vienna to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have stalled since mid-March when diplomats returned to their capitals for consultations over disagreements. Major issues reportedly include Washington’s refusal to delist Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) which the Trump administration designated as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’. Iran also insists on avenging the US killing of IRGC’s Qods Force Commander Ghasem (Qasem) Soleimani who was killed in Baghdad in 2020 in a US targeted drone attack.

In recent weeks, regional countries including Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait, all of which have very good relations with Washington, have reportedly tried to mediate between Iran and the United States.

So far there has been no breakthrough but the Emir of Qatar Tamim Al Thani, who visited Tehran last week and met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, at a press conference in Berlin Friday expressed hope that Tehran and Washington would reach an agreement, saying Doha is ready to help resolve the disagreements.

Most of Iran's official and semi-official media downplayed or completely excluded any mention of Qatar’s possible mediation in the nuclear talks and instead focused on reporting the Iranian leader’s and president's remarks about regional issues and Israel.

Oman which has a long record of mediation between Tehran and Washington as well as other world powers has also been working behind the scenes. Iranian media announced Saturday that Raisi will be visiting Muscat on Monday at the invitation of Sultan Haitham Al-Said.

The reports made no mention of any plans to discuss the nuclear standoff between Tehran and Washington in Muscat and only said the signing of some cooperation agreements and meetings with Omani economic officials will be on the agenda of Raisi’s one-day visit to the sultanate.

An Iranian diplomat who declined to be named told Faraz Daily economic news website on Friday that Tehran counts on Oman’s mediation more than any other country due to several decades of trust.

“[Facilitating] talks and more serious agreements between Iran and the US has usually been entrusted to the Omani mediators, meaning Iranian and American officials want this,” he said, adding that the major part of initial talks between Tehran and Washington that led to the conclusion of a nuclear agreement in 2015 were conducted through Omani mediators.

In an article published on Friday, American journalist Laura Rozen quoted the unnamed source as saying that “Every day which passes without achieving agreement, the risk to lose everything increases considerably”.

“As far as I see it, both sides are going into different directions and the distance is not narrowing down,” the European diplomat said, referring to the United States and Iran.

Criticizing the White House’s political cautiousness, former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt warned in a Washington Post op-ed this week that “Biden must seriously consider the costs of his passivity vis-a-vis Iran and find a way forward — or we may find ourselves in another conflict that no one asked for”.

The French foreign ministry spokesperson said on May 17 that “The draft agreement on resuming compliance with the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) has been ready for more than two months. However, it is being held up by an issue between the United States and Iran that is not related to the JCPOA”.

Tehran says Washington must respond to proposals it put forth last week during the visit of EU coordinator Enrique Mora, to break the stalemate in nuclear talks.

Negotiations that started in Vienna in April last year to restore Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal known as JCPOA came to a halt in March as Tehran reportedly demanded the removal of its Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told a press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, "We hope there will be an agreement between the parties to Iran nuclear agreement”.

Qatar’s ruler visited Tehran last week and held meetings with President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. His visit coincided with the presence of EU coordinator of the nuclear talks, Enrique Mora, in Tehran.

Most of Iran's official and semi-official media had downplayed or completely excluded any mention of possible mediation in the nuclear talks by the Emir and instead focused on reporting the Iranian leader and president's remarks about regional issues and Israel.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatari foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani about Iran, thanking his counterpart for “Qatar’s constructive role in efforts to resolve issues with Iran” as well as its diplomatic assistance with Afghanistan.

Talks in Vienna since April 2021 had reached a critical stage by mid-March when diplomats announced a pause and returned to their capitals.

A major disagreement reportedly remains the US listing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ while Iran has also refused to drop calls for retribution for the US killing IRGC general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

The Texas Republican described the Islamic Republic’s “outrageous demands” as the reason the negotiations to restore the deal have stalled.

He said that “the ayatollahs’ demands are so extreme and so radical” adding that the Biden White House desperately wants a deal at almost any price, “even if it jeopardizes the safety and security of Israel, and even if it jeopardizes the safety and security of the United States".

"I forced a vote on the Senate floor, demanding that terrorism sanctions remain in place on the IRGC, and we won an overwhelming bipartisan victory. The vast majority of Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, voted for my amendment, insisting sanctions remain. I hope that stalls this deal”, he said.

Cruz noted, “The Biden administration had Russia negotiate the deal, Russia as our enemy, Iran as our enemy, and our enemies are sitting at a table together negotiating a deal that hurts America and hurts Israel”.

The eighth round of talks in Vienna which began in late December, came to an abrupt pause in mid-March as major stumbling blocks between Tehran and Washington -- which only negotiates indirectly through the European coordinator of the talks -- remained unresolved.

A major disagreement reportedly remains the US listing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ while Iran has also refused to drop calls for retribution for the US killing IRGC general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

In his daily briefing, Price was asked about the results of European Union chief negotiator Enrique Mora’s recent trip to Iran, but he avoided giving a clear answer, by insisting that the US does “not negotiate in public.” He reiterated that it is up to Iran to move the stalled negotiations forward.

“Iran needs to decide, as I alluded to before, whether it insists on conditions that are extraneous to the JCPOA, or whether it is ready, willing, and able to conclude the JCPOA, a mutual return to compliance with it, quickly,” Price said most likely referring to Tehran’s demand for removing its Revolutionary Guard from a US list of terrorist organizations.

Price also avoided directly answering a question whether the US agrees with the Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz who said Tuesday that Iran is deploying far more uranium enriching centrifuges than previously estimated. He alluded to the secret nature of intelligence information in avoiding a direct answer.

Asked if a military option against Iran, in cooperation with Israel, is on the table, Price said, “We believe that diplomacy and dialogue affords an opportunity to sustainably and durably and permanently put an end to Iran’s ability to produce or otherwise acquire a nuclear weapon.”