Iran on Wednesday (November 3) agreed to resume negotiations on a nuclear agreement with world powers after a five-month gap on November 29. The United States urged a speedy resolution of the issue.
The indirect negotiations in Vienna were carried out amid increasing pressure on Iran. Western countries warned that nuclear work in this clergy country was advancing to a dangerous level, and Israel threatened to launch an attack.
The EU announced that the EU envoy Enrique Mora, who led six rounds of talks earlier this year and recently flew to Tehran to seek progress, will once again preside over the November 29 meeting.
When President Joe Biden took office, he hoped to return to the 2015 agreement that his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew.
But negotiations earlier this year failed to achieve a breakthrough with Iran, and Iran demanded a suspension after the election of a new hardliner President Ibrahim Raisi in June.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the United States believes it is possible to “quickly” resolve “relatively few issues that remained unresolved at the end of June”.
“We believe that if the Iranians are serious, we can do this in a relatively short period of time,” Price told reporters.
“But we are also very clear, including because the suspension has been delayed for a while, this window of opportunity will not open forever.”
Trump imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iran when he withdrew from the United States in 2018, leading Tehran to take measures not to abide by the agreement, through which it significantly reduced sensitive nuclear work.
Iran hopes to lift all U.S. sanctions, but the Biden administration stated that it will only negotiate measures taken by Trump on the nuclear program, such as the U.S. unilateral prohibition of other countries from buying Iranian oil-not measures on other issues such as human rights. .
‘Lack of authority’
Iran also wants to promise that the United States will continue to work on the agreement — an unlikely proposal in Washington, and Trump’s Republican Party, inspired by winning the state elections on Tuesday, strongly opposes Biden’s diplomacy with Iran.
“The President of the United States lacks authority and refuses to provide assurances,” Iran’s top security official Ali Shamhani wrote on Twitter when the meeting was announced.
“If this situation does not change, the outcome of the negotiations will be clear.”
Iran’s chief negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri confirmed the resumption of negotiations on November 29 and stated that the goal would be to “remove illegal and inhuman sanctions.”
The head of the House Intelligence Committee and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said that Trump’s failure to fulfill the promises made by the United States during the tenure of former President Barack Obama has damaged the credibility of the United States on the Iran issue.
But Schiff admitted to being frustrated with Iran and warned that if Tehran does not abide by the agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan, Congress may increase pressure.
Schiff said at the Aspen Security Forum: “If we cannot negotiate to bring Iran back to the JCPOA negotiating table, then we will have to really increase sanctions and unite the international community as before.”
To the frustration of the United States, Iran refused to meet directly with US envoy Rob Marley, while European mediators shuttled between hotels in Vienna.
Britain, France, and Germany — and China and Russia are still in the agreement — have expressed growing concern that Iran’s nuclear work may develop to the point where the JCPOA will be useless.
There is widespread suspicion that Israel was involved in a sabotage, including the assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientists a year ago.
When visiting Washington last month, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned that this Jewish country would not hesitate to use force against Iran. Iran’s rulers repeatedly threatened Israel and supported Lebanese Hezbollah, etc. The vicious anti-Israel movement.
