Iran nuclear deal ‘in danger’, says EU chief negotiator

Financial Time-Sept 5th 2022

Henry Foy in Brussels, Felicia Schwartz in Washington and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

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The EU’s chief diplomat has said that efforts to strike a new agreement on Iran’s nuclear program are “in danger” after the US and Iranian positions diverged in recent days. Josep Borrell, who chairs the indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran on reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said on Monday that he was losing confidence in finding a deal. In his most pessimistic remarks since he sent both sides a “final draft” of a possible agreement last month, the EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy said: “The positions are not closer . . . If the process does not converge, then the whole process is in danger.” ”I am sorry to say that I am less confident today than [48] hours ago about the convergence of the negotiation process and the prospect of closing the deal,” he added. After months of intense indirect negotiations between the US and Iran in Vienna, the EU submitted a draft agreement in August, prompting hopes that a deal was close. But Tehran and Washington have since submitted responses to the text, with the two sides clashing over the status of a probe into Iran’s nuclear program by the UN’s atomic watchdog and Iran’s demand that the US guarantee it will continue to receive the economic benefits of sanctions relief if the deal later collapses. The JCPOA all but collapsed in 2018 when former US president Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned it and imposed hundreds of sanctions against Iran. His successor Joe Biden entered office pledging to rejoin the deal and lift many sanctions if Iran, which is enriching uranium at close to weapons-grade levels, returned to compliance with the accord. “At a certain moment, my responsibility as co-ordinator is to say ‘that’s enough, this is the most balanced text I can produce taking into account all views’,” Borrell said of the draft text. “Then we started a process of interactions . . . an interactive process is good if it converges,” he added. “They were converging to a closer position. But then the last interactions was not converging. It was diverging.” After receiving Iran’s response last week, American officials were downbeat about possible progress in the talks. US state department spokesperson Vedant Patel described it as “not constructive”. Officials said they did not expect any imminent breakthroughs and that the process could stretch past the US midterm elections in November. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said gaps remained between the two sides. “The president will only conclude a deal that he determines is in the national security interest of the United States,” she said. Tehran said it was ready to sign a deal immediately if its two top demands were met. Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi said last week that the Islamic Republic should be able to “objectively and practically verify” that the US lifted sanctions “in a sustainable fashion”. He also said the International Atomic Energy Agency had to put aside its “politically-motivated claims”. While many Iranians believe the agreement is necessary to boost the economy, hardline politicians argue that western states need an agreement to enable the return of Iranian crude to the market. Mohammad Marandi, an adviser to Iran’s negotiating team, said over the weekend that “Iran won’t accept ambiguities or loopholes in the text. Winter is approaching and the EU is facing a crippling energy crisis”. “Iran will be patient,” he added.