Iran Spokesman, Media Stress Demand For ‘Guarantees’ In Nuclear Talks

After Iran responded Monday evening to the European Union – mediating indirect United States-Iran discussions – to proposals circulated August 8 by EU official Enrique Mora, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said he was “not going to get into the specifics of any language that may or may not result from this.”

Information gleaned by Iran International suggests Iran has eased its demands, especially in accepting the ‘language’ in the EU text over the status of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) enquiries into unexplained uranium traces found at sites not declared as nuclear-related. Tehran has publicly demanded the IAEA drop the probe.

Remaining issues, Iran International has reported, concern ‘guarantees’ Iran seeks over its access to world markets under terms specified by the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). According to Iran International, Iran has not accepted as sufficient a clause in the EU text offering Tehran and entities dealing with Iran, once the JCPOA was restored, a one-year respite from US sanctions should the JCPOA again fall away, presumably by Washington leaving the deal as it did in 2018 under President Donald Trump.

The long-running talks – Iran and six world powers in Vienna April 2021-March 2022; Iran-US bilaterally in Doha in June, and Vienna August 5-8 – have survived apparent setbacks including the change of president in Iran and the Ukraine crisis.

Core challenges

But the core challenges have remained agreeing which US sanctions are incompatible with the JCPOA and how exactly the Iran nuclear program, refined and expanded since 2019, should be returned to JCPOA limits. On the latter, there have been reports Iran has tried to gain acceptance for some of its nuclear developments, for example by keeping in storage rather than decommissioning advanced centrifuges barred under the 2015 deal.

Both the US and Iran have outwardly placed the onus on the other. “In return for Iran placing verifiable and permanent limits on its nuclear program, we would lift sanctions on that nuclear program,” Price said Monday. In Tehran Monday, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, said Iran wanted “a good, sustainable and strong agreement,” and awaited US “flexibility.”

Throughout the 16-month talks, there have been many reports of single issues supposedly blocking agreement. These have included the US listing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a ‘foreign terrorist organization,’ which Washington argues is unrelated to the JCPOA while Iran argues the listing was specifically linked by the Trump administration to ‘maximum pressure.’

Likewise, while the US – along with the three European JCPOA signatories, France, Germany and the United Kingdom – have argued the IAEA probe into uranium traces is a matter of Iran’s basic ‘safeguards’ commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iranian officials have argued the agency’s enquiries were revived only after ‘politically-motivated’ allegations in 2018 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘Nothing is agreed…’

But whatever possible concessions either the US or Iran have floated, “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” as US special envoy Rob Malley has put it, most recently in a PBS interview August 12.The fate of the JCPOA now hangs on whether negotiators can find a written text acceptable to all concerned.

Amir-Abdollahian said Monday that while “the coming days” were “very important,” it was possible that “we will need more efforts and talks ... to resolve the remaining issues.”

Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council for Foreign Relations, said Monday that if Iran wanted further talks on the Mora text, the US and Europeans would face a crucial choice in judging“how many amendments Iran seeks and how substantive they are…”

The diplomat, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also told Iran International’s Ahamd Samadi that the US is prepared to continue negotiations on changes in the form of the text proposed last week by the EU coordinator in the Vienna nuclear talks.

Diplomats met and discussed the restoration of the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA from August 4-8 in Vienna after talks had stalled in March. The EU proposed a text based on the negotiations to Iran and the US for their final agreement. Washington has said it is ready to proceed based on the proposal, while Tehran is set to send its response midnight Monday.

The diplomat maintained that “If Iran wants to make major changes in the draft, the United States will clearly reject it.”

State Department spokesperson Ned Price in his Monday briefing announced that the US will “privately” share its views on EU’s final draft with the bloc’s High Representative Josep Borrell.

Answering questions at length, Price added that the US agrees “with his fundamental point that what could be negotiated has been negotiated, and that is why the High Representative took it upon himself to propose a text that is substantially based on the March proposal that has been in play for some time.”

Price’s comment was further proof that Washington does not want to reopen major negotiations with Iran after 16 months of exhausting indirect talks. Iran has refused to directly meet with American diplomats.

Price also underlined that President Joe Biden is adamant not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

“We will use all tools available to deter, to contain and otherwise counter dangerous Iranian activities in the region and in some cases well beyond, not the least of which as we’ve all been discussing in recent days is the plotting against former US officials and mental threats to American citizens,” he maintained.

Price was referring to cases that US authorities have said Iranian agents were behind plots to kill former national security adviser John Bolton and other Trump administration officials, and the arrest of an armed man outside to home of an Iranian activist, Masih Alinejad, in Brooklyn, NY. Moreover, the serious attack on renowned author Salman Rushdie last week has also led many to blame Iran for having condemned him to death and maintaining a bounty on more than $3 million on his head.

Many have since expressed outrage and dismay that the administration is still willing to conclude a new nuclear deal with Iran and provide sanctions relief.

However, Price reiterated the administration’s position that diplomacy is the best way to put Iran’s nuclear program back into JCPOA limits. He also added that if Tehran refuses to reach a deal on JCPOA, Washington is “equally prepared to continue the vigorous enforcement of our sanctions in the imposition of other diplomatic pressure.”

Price also insisted that contrary to media reports, the US is not about to lift sanctions imposed on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

In response to Iran International’s question at the briefing, Price reiterated that Iran has to drop all demands “beyond the scope of the JCPOA.”

Referring to President Biden’s position, the spokesperson said, “We have long called these demands extraneous, they have no place in Vienna, they have no place in the discussions regarding a potential return to compliance with the JCPOA.”

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday, “We have not offered our final conclusion to the opposite side yet. We will relay our final conclusion on the outstanding issues to the EU coordinator in writing by midnight today to see what feedback it will have and what reaction the US will show.”

Reiterating calls on the US to take “a realistic and flexible approach” to Tehran’s offer, he added that “The American side has orally agreed to two proposals offered by Iran,” and that Washington's oral acceptance of the Iranian offers "must turn into a text and it must show flexibility on one issue."

“However, the US ... wants to get more concessions and does not show flexibility. We must talk more and those parties that are trying to get our positions closer should [try to] get the Americans closer to our logical viewpoints,” he said, hinting that Iran will try to make the talks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) linger on. 

Emphasizing the significance of the “upcoming days,” the Iranian foreign minister stressed that Tehran is ready to reach a conclusion through a foreign ministerial meeting and announce the final agreement if its views are accepted and its redlines are respected. 

Amir-Abdollahian’s remarks and statements by other officials show that Tehran is not yet satisfied with the EU offer on the table and expects more negotiations.

“We are close to an agreement provided that Iran’s red lines are respected,” Nasser Kanaani told his weekly briefing. “Relative progress has been achieved, but these advances have not fully satisfied Iran’s legal demands, and we have other expectations from the other side…”

Kanaani said consultations “at the highest level” had taken place and were “continuing.” Decisions over the nuclear program rest with the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), which has around 23 members, although are likely to be shaped by more informal meetings with Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader.

Although Iran may soon send its repsonse to the EU, it does not mean a final agreement. Iran statements show that Tehran is still determined to haggle for more concessions.

The official news agency IRNA cited Friday a “senior Iranian diplomat” that a European Union text presented August 8 by Enrique Mora, who has coordinated 18-month talks with world powers including the United States, “can be acceptable if it provides assurances."

August 15 deadline?

The Wall Street Journal August 9 cited “two people with knowledge of the discussions” suggesting the EU had set an August 15 deadline for an Iranian response, although the newspaper also quoted Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency saying it wasn’t for the EU to issue ultimatums.

Reuters news agency Friday quoted a European official suggesting an answer was expected from Iran within “a very, very few weeks.” A tweet from Iranian journalist Sara Massoumi Monday reported that Iran would respond by the end of Monday, August 15.

While European and American officials presented the Mora document as a “final text,” Iran reacted to it rather as a set of suggestions for restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). IRNA called it “some ideas concerning some of the remaining issues.”

As Iranian and US negotiations left Vienna August 8 after the most recent round of nuclear talks, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, tweeted that while “what can be negotiated has been negotiated” and that “behind every technical issue and every paragraph lies a political decision that needs to be taken in the capitals.”

Tehran Denies Rushdie Role

Opponents of the JCPOA in Washington seized on Friday’s attack on writer Salman Rushdie as further justification for breaking off talks with Iran, while some commentators in Iran have detected a plot designed to undermine efforts to revive the JCPOA.

Iran Monday rejected any connection with the stabbing of the author of the 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, deemed blasphemous by some Muslims. Suspect Hadi Mattar has denied a charge of attempted murder.

A statement Sunday from Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, on the Rushdie assault made no reference to the JCPOA talks: “Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life. This is despicable.”

There was no mention of the nuclear deal, the JCPOA, in the official readout of the cabinet meeting, and state agencies reported that President Ebrahim Raisi only talked about the "discourse of resistance" as the only effective way to tackle problems facing the Islamic World.

‘Resistance’ is a label Tehran uses to refer to its allies and proxies in the Middle East who follow its foreign and regional policies.

Referring to August 14 designated as the “Day of Islamic Resistance” in the official calendar of the country, the president praised the concept of resistance in confronting “world arrogance”, an expression the Islamic Republic uses to refer to the United States. 

As the European Union submitted a final take-it-or-leave-it proposal to restore the Iran nuclear deal, some reports say Iran is unlikely to agree to a return to the JCPOA. 

The new text reportedly includes guarantees that foreign companies will be able to invest in Iran or operate there once sanctions are lifted, without fearing the repercussions of any party withdrawing from the deal, as the United States did in 2018 under President Donald Trump, but Tehran demanded more drastic concessions outside the scope of the original agreement, including over an International Atomic Energy Agency probe into undeclared nuclear material found in the country.