US Divisions Over Iran Aired As Special Envoy Malley Briefs Senate
US Senators leaving a closed briefing by US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley were pessimistic about the prospects of a nuclear agreement with Tehran.
US Senators leaving a closed briefing by US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley were pessimistic about the prospects of a nuclear agreement with Tehran.
While Republicans found more reason to criticize President Joe Biden's approach to Iran, Democrats who also sounded pessimistic continued to support the diplomatic option.
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida told Iran International's corrspondent Arash Alaei that he did not believe “a deal that is acceptable” was “possible with the current Iranian leadership,” and that “there may not be a way to keep a government that’s determined to build a nuclear capability from acquiring it …”
Rubio said Iran would “become a nuclear power, whether there’s a deal or not – I think the question with the deal is whether they’ll have more money to do it faster,” in an implicit reference to a lifting of US sanctions in case of an agreement.
Marc Rod, Washington reporter of the Jewish Insider, in tweets cited Rubio saying the administration of President Joe Biden lacked a “plan B,” referring to a back-up approach should diplomatic efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal fail.
Malley was briefing the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Wednesday on the Biden administration’s current assessment of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). Year-long talks between Iran and world powers to restore the JCPOA have been paused since March.
‘No way…without diplomacy’
Both supporters and opponents of the JCPOA have in recent days suggested that Biden’s policy is failing, with JCPOA critics insisting a ‘plan B’ is now needed.
Pessimism around the chances of the nuclear talks suspended in Vienna since March have increased compared to three weeks ago when Malley testified in the Senate.
Defending the administration’s approach, Democratic Party senator Chris Murphy told Iran International that the White House had been consistent “there is no way to protect the United States, no way to stop Iran from a path to a nuclear weapon without diplomacy, without this deal.”
Murphy insisted that the current situation – with Iran since 2019 expanding its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits – resulted from President Donald Trump in 2018 removing the US from the agreement.
‘Absolute dumpster fire’
“We all know,” Murphy said, “that Iran has been moving rapidly to a point where it has enough fissile material in order to make a weapon – and that has only occurred because of the Trump administration’s decision to blow up this deal, and to my mind we have to get back in it as quickly as possible.”
Asked by Rod how he thought the administration assessed the chances of agreement to restore the JCPOA, Murphy said: “The chances of a breakthrough are much smaller today than they were six months ago.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen, another Democrat, expressed hope to Rod that the Biden administration was still serious about diplomacy. He said that any ‘plan B’ would include a military option and “likely result in a lot of Americans getting killed.”
Democrat Chris Coons of Delaware, said to be close to President Biden said, “The new regime in Iran has refused to make reasonable accommodations to get back into the JCPOA. I think their demands at the negotiating table that are public and their actions that are public are gravely concerning and I'm not optimistic about the path.”
Senator Ted Cruz, a long-time opponent of the 2015 deal (the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and staunch Trump ally, described Malley’s briefing as “quite concerning” and called Biden’s approach an “absolute dumpster fire.”
Answering a question by our correspondent Samira Gharaei at the State department briefing on Tuesday about claims by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that the Islamic Republic has proposed new initiatives aimed at reviving the nuclear deal, spokesman Ned Price implicitly confirmed the news but avoided directly commenting on Iran's proposals.
Price reiterated that Washington and its European partners are ready to conclude an agreement in Vienna for the mutual compliance with the JCPOA, noting that for that to happen, “Tehran needs to decide to drop demands that go beyond the scope of the JCPOA”, suggesting that the new proposals by Tehran include demands extraneous to the 2015 accord.
He confirmed that Tehran and Washington are engaged in indirect regular contact via Enrique Mora, the European Union coordinator for the Iran nuclear talks, saying, “We await a constructive response from the Iranians, a response that leaves behind issues that are extraneous to the JCPOA.”
Earlier in the day, Iran's Atomic Energy Organization released a copy of its answers to IAEA questions about origins of uranium found at three undeclared locations, saying “sabotage” is the only explanation.
The document that was released to the media on Tuesday was earlier submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which rejected the explanations as "technically not credible".
Iran agreed March 5 to provide written explanations by March 20 of long-standing issues in its nuclear work before 2003, and to clear up remaining queries by June 21. The latest quarterly report by the UN watchdog expressed dissatisfaction with Iran’s response to agency over sites not declared as part of the nuclear program where inspectors detected traces of uranium. This led to a resolution critical of Iran’s nuclear cooperation by the agency’s board of governors on June 8.
In its answers, Iran maintained that the only plausible explanation for such traces is probably sabotage by foreign elements at Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad sites, pointing out that the Varamin center, near the capital Tehran, was "never" used for nuclear activities.
Iran said the IAEA’s claims about storage of nuclear material and/or conduct of nuclear-related activities, at Varamin are not supported by valid proofs and are misleading, noting that “the initial activities conducted in this location had been exploitation of sodium sulphate from the soil and water of the surrounding region.”
For Marivan, which is a misnomer as the site is located near the city of Abadeh in the southwestern Fars province, Iran said the origin of the particles is "unknown" and insists the site was used for "the exploitation of fireclay through a contract with a foreign company decades ago" hence the IAEA’s “conclusion is absolutely false, unrealistic and biased.”
Iran claims it carried out its own investigation in Turquzabad and "did not find the origin of the particles" reported by the IAEA.
Later on Tuesday, the head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said that Iran’s contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency are still underway, reiterating that Iran will act based on the safeguards protocol.
The resolution called on Iran to engage with the IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, without delay and expressed “profound concern” at Iran’s failure to satisfy the agency over the traces of uranium.
Following the resolution, Iran retaliated, telling the IAEA it plans to remove more monitoring equipment, but intends to maintain a basic level of monitoring and inspectors’ access as required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The resolution comes with year-long talks paused since March between Iran and five world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).
This comes while Iranian politicians seem divided over how essential the nuclear talks are for Iran. While, Falahatpisheh said in an interview with Khabar Online that it is essential for Iran to stick to the 2015 nuclear agreement, the former spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast told Didban Iran news website that the clock is ticking in Iran's favor and Tehran will benefit from prolonging the negotiations.
Falahatpisheh, the former chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, argued that unlike what Iran's former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once said, UN resolutions are not simply “shreds of paper,” and if the IAEA board of governors issues a resolution, it can shift Iran's nuclear case from the UN nuclear watchdog to the Security Council, where member states can return all the previous international sanctions against Iran.
However, Falahatpisheh did not mention that in 2006 when first international sanctions were imposed, the United States, China and Russia spoke in one voice about Iran's nuclear case while in 2022, and in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, Moscow might veto any UNSC resolution against Iran.
Nonetheless, Falahatpisheh who has served as a lawmaker for 12 years and is currently teaching at the University of Tehran is adamant that neither Iran nor the United States see the revival of the JCPOA as their top priority.
He added that if the JCPOA is to be revived, the only players who should remain at the negotiating table are the main beneficiaries, that is Iran and the United States. He repeated his position first expressed in March that Tehran and Washington should marginalize Russia, China and the three European states if they really wish the talks to be fruitful.
The US has always welcomed direct talks, even during former president Donald Trump’s administration that withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal and imposed sanctions, but Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is ideologically opposed to it.
Falahatpisheh explained that the JCPOA is no longer a priority in Iran as the country has shifted from an economy geared toward development to one of austerity, aimed at providing the bare necessities for the nation.
He argued that Iran has handed over its fate to “Russian and Chinese lobbies” whose first and foremost concerns are the interests of their own countries, and if Tehran moves toward acquiring nuclear weapons Russia and China will certainly act against Iran.
Meanwhile, Former Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said: “Westerners think that Iran's only weak point is its domestic economy and wish to secure their interests by exerting maximum pressure on Tehran.”
The former diplomat added: "Iran's national interests are tied to the JCPOA and senior officials [Islamic Republic jargon for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei] have set a red line for Iranian negotiators. We should make sure that we have a powerful presence in the negotiations as Westerners try to create tensions to blackmail Iran and get concessions while conceding little in return."
"On the other hand, the West considers Iran's powerful regional presence and its missile program as Tehran's two points of strength. They wish to weaken us in these two areas, but the Islamic Republic has made it clear that these are not negotiable," said Mehmanparast.
He concluded: "The clock is ticking in our interest and the longer the negotiation process becomes we will have more time to sort out our economic problems."