US Envoy: Nuclear Talks Needed ‘Within Iran’

He will also tell Macron that the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group is "playing with fire", Reuters quoted an official as saying.

Lapid's visit to France, his first abroad since becoming caretaker premier last week, is also a chance to flex diplomatic muscles as Israelis gear up for a snap election in November.

France is among world powers trying to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA, with Iran that the previous US administration quit, and which Israel opposed, deeming its caps insufficient.

"The French are very, very active on the Iranian issue," a senior Israeli official told reporters.

"It is important for us to make our case ... Israel opposes a return to the JCPOA (2015 nuclear deal). In the same breath, we do not oppose a deal. We seek a very strong deal."

Israel is not a party to the nuclear negotiations. But Western capitals have been attentive to its concerns about its arch-enemy and worried it might take pre-emptive military action if it deems diplomacy a dead end.

"We want an end to the unending talks," said the senior Israeli official, calling for "coordinated pressure" on Iran and offering help on "drafting an appropriate framework" for that.

On Saturday Israel shot down three Hezbollah drones launched toward one of its Mediterranean gas rigs.

The Karish rig near Lebanon's coast will produce gas not only for Israel, but eventually also for the European Union, the official said, tapping into EU countries' quest to replace Russia as an energy supplier since it invaded Ukraine.

They focused on opportunities for greater cooperation on regional issues in a phone call, in which Blinken also thanked Al Thani for Qatar’s continued assistance with Iran and Afghanistan diplomacy, as well as Qatar’s announcement of an additional $60 million to support the Lebanese Armed Forces.

The American diplomat lauded Qatar’s efforts in helping to continue efforts for attaining a mutual return to full implementation of the 2015 nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in particular for Doha hosting indirect talks between Tehran and Washington.

Brokered by the European Union, the two-day talks in the Qatari capital last week were aimed at breaking a months-long impasse in negotiations to restore the JCPOA, but ended without any tangible results.

Tehran blames Washington’s inflexibility to guarantee Iran’s economic benefit under the deal for lack of progress in the proximity talks, while US officials say, "The Iranians have not demonstrated any sense of urgency, raised old issues that have been settled for months.”

In a phone call with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “The US side attended talks in Doha without an approach based on initiative and progress. Our assessment of Doha talks is positive but we should see how the US wants to seize this chance for diplomacy.”

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri-Kani paid an unannounced visit to Russia after Doha talks.

Bagheri-Kani’s immediate trip to Moscow after two days of indirect talks in Qatar with US envoy Rob Malley led to a lot of criticism in Iran by those who resent Moscow’s influence over Tehran and believe Russia is working against a nuclear agreement with Washington.

The trip was kept secret until Russian sources released the news and aphoto of Bagheri-Kani's meeting in Moscow.

Baghaeri Kani told reporters in Tehran on Monday that Iran has been consulting with all the parties to the 2015 nuclear agreement JCPOA, but “because the Russians have no Covid restrictions, sometimes they come and sometimes we go there.” He added that Chinese Covid restrictions make it harder to travel there.

Many newspapers and observers have criticized the Moscow trip after the failed talks.

Former deputy speaker of parliament Ali Motahari tweeted on Sunday that Tehran’s pro-Russia and pro-China policy has gotten to the point that “Russia’s foreign minister comes to Tehran before the Doha talks as if to say that although we are not there, the talks take place with our permission. And after the talks, Iran’s negotiating team immediately goes to Moscow to submit a report, before giving a report to the Iranian people.”

Motahari went on to say that Russia does not want the revival of JCPOA in order to prevent Iran from entering the global oil and gas market. “Unfortunately, our officials have tied our national interests to those of Russia,” he added.

In an interview with British magazine The Spectator published on Saturday, Kissinger, who is a former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, added that any modification in the 2015 accord “makes it apparently more tolerable to the adversary." 

He noted that if such a deal is reached, the situation of the region might become “much more explosive” because “particularly Israel – Iran’s chief enemy – but also Egypt and Saudi Arabia – whom they see as principal competitors – were going to be driven into reactions.”

Saying that there is really “no alternative to the elimination of an Iranian nuclear force,” Kissinger emphasized that there is “no way you can have peace in the Middle East with nuclear weapons in Iran, because before that happens, there is a high danger of pre-emption by Israel, because Israel cannot wait for deterrents. It can afford only one blow on itself. That is the inherent problem of the crisis.”

“I was extremely doubtful about the original nuclear agreement. I thought Iran’s promises would be very difficult to verify, and that the talks really created a pattern in which the nuclear build-up might have been slowed down a little but made more inevitable,” he said. 

Iran’s media is filled with contradictory comments on the outcome of indirect talks with Washington in Qatar this week over the fate of the Vienna negotiations, which have been stalled for months.

In what appears to be the first criticism of the government's foreign and economic policy from within President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, the head of Iran’s Nuclear Organization, Mohammad Eslami has said, "The people can no longer tolerate the economic and financial pressures." He called on Iran's nuclear negotiating team "to use a strong political and legal argument" to facilitate the lifting of US sanctions and putting Iran back on track to progress and development.

Eslami, who is also a vice president, said during a speech on June 30 and published on Saturday: "The uncalculated measures taken by a part of the government to reform the cash subsidy system provided a pretext for nationwide dissatisfaction."

He was referring to the government decision in early May to eliminate food import subsidies that led to unusual price rises followed by protests in many parts of the country. However, he also blamed the "world's oppressive powers'" [the Islamic Republic officials' jargon to refer to the United States] opposition to Iran and its “destructive measures” that raises the risk of investment in Iran and creates economic and financial difficulties for the people.

Eslami said that the United States reduced the value of the Iranian currency by 30 to 40 percent in one blow, and Iranians are no longer able to tolerate more economic pressures.

The Iranian currency has dropped significantly since March when nuclear talks to revive the 2015 agreement known as the JCPOA stopped without a final result.

Despite his criticism of the state of the economy, Eslami said elsewhere in his speech: "Iran's economic situation is outstanding. Iran is one of the world's 20 superior economies." This was probably to balance his statements when he realized that he has gone too far in criticizing the government.

He added that the Iranian opposition abroad keeps telling the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran is working on nuclear bombs. He added that inspections by the IAEA refuted these claims. However, he did not say that on June 8 the IAEA Board of Governors issued a resolution condemning Iran for not answering the agency's questions about traces of nuclear material in undeclared sites.

Eslami also stopped short of mentioning Iran's violations of JCPOA, by producing 60-percent enriched uranium and shortening the time it needs to reach a nuclear breakout point. However, he called on the negotiating team to use strong arguments to win Iran’s case.

This comes while the negotiating team is being criticized by Iranian politicians and analysts for not doing their best mainly because they, particularly the teams leader Ali Bagheri, have opposed the JCPOA since 2015, and have opposed any agreement with the United States since 2011.

Eslami called on officials to respond to the people's complaints about their difficult financial situation.

The most controversial part of Eslami's speech was his reference to "the need for intelligent command and management to prevent the enemy from making gains." This could be taken as a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's occasional indecision at tough junctures as he does not wish to assume any responsibility for possible consequences, although he has the final say about everything in Iran including the nuclear program.