As Iran Talks of Nuclear Advances, Negotiations With U.S. Restart

As Iran Talks of Nuclear Advances, Negotiations With U.S. Restart

NY Times – Aug 4th 2022

Envoys from both countries gathered for another effort to restore the 2015 agreement to limit Tehran’s nuclear program. Expectations are low.

BRUSSELS — With Iran announcing this week that it now has the technical ability to produce a nuclear warhead, though denying that it plans to, negotiators from the United States and Iran arrived on Thursday in Vienna for one more — and perhaps the last — effort to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that limited Tehran’s nuclear program.

Expectations for the talks, chaired by the European Union, were low. But the negotiations may also lead to a more serious round if the two sides are willing to move on what they have both described as their red lines and make some politically fraught concessions.

The lead negotiator for the United States, Rob Malley, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Bagheri Kani, traveled to Vienna for the talks after the European Union tabled a draft that is slightly amended from a text largely agreed upon in March. That prompted some hope that Washington and Tehran would in the end agree to revive the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which former President Donald J. Trump abandoned in 2018, calling it “the worst deal in history.”

Mr. Trump deliberately complicated any chance of revival, not only reimposing severe economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted in the deal but also imposing hundreds more.

Mr. Bagheri Kani said that the burden was on Washington. “The onus is on those who breached the deal & have failed to distance from ominous legacy,” he wrote in his own Twitter message. A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani, described the talks as “a discussion and exchange of views.”

Speaking at the United Nations, Iran’s ambassador to the global body, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, blamed Washington for failing to guarantee that Iran would receive the pact’s economic benefits. “Achieving this objective has been delayed because the United States is yet to decide to give assurance that Iran will enjoy the promised economic benefits in the agreement,” he said.

The delay has meant that Iran has pressed ahead with its nuclear program so far that it will be difficult to monitor any revived agreement, even if one is reached, suggested the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael M. Grossi.

Before the meeting, Mr. Malley suggested that he did not expect major progress. “Our expectations are in check, but the United States welcomes E.U. efforts and is prepared for a good-faith attempt to reach a deal,” he wrote on Twitter. “It will shortly be clear if Iran is prepared for the same.” Iran negotiators still refuse to meet directly with Americans.