Merkel And Her Likely Successor Will Discuss Iran With Biden

"Considering the repeated impact of the publication of Iranian documents, it seems that this is an ongoing trend under the influence of certain countries with certain objectives, part of which is waging psychological warfare," Behrouz Kamalvandi, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman said Wednesday in an interview with state broadcaster (IRIB).

Iran in September limited IAEA access to a manufacturing plant at Karaj that was hit in June by sabotage in which IAEA cameras were among damaged equipment. Attacks over many years on Iranian atomic facilities – including one in June on the Natanz enrichment plant – have been widely attributed to Israel, which recently announced a $1.5 billion budget for bombing Iran’s nuclear sites. Israel has also been blamed for killing Iranian nuclear scientists.

Kamalvandi said that details contained in IAEA reports, which are available to IAEA member states and widely leaked to the media, amounted to "a major development or misappropriation." He said Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA would need to be limited unless the agency restricted access to sensitive information.

Iran has been discussing with the European Union prospects for restarting talks in Vienna aimed at reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. This week Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kant met with Enrique Mora, the EU's deputy secretary-general for political affairs in Brussels.

Bagheri-Kani said Wednesday Iran had agreed to resume negotiations with the remaining parties to the 2015 agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by the end of November.

The Vienna talks were suspended in June after six rounds pending the Iranian presidential election and subsequent transition. Since President Ebrahim Raisi assumed office in August Iran has repeatedly promised to resume the talks "soon" without setting a concrete date.

Iran's state media said Wednesday Iran had issued an invitation for direct talks with the European JCPOA signatories – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – in Tehran or in Europe. Reuters quoted a diplomatic source as saying that the Europeans have not received an invitation.

Tehran is reportedly seeking assurances that the United States would not leave a revived JCPOA in the way former president Donald Trump left the deal in 2018 and imposed stringent ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.

In expanding its nuclear program since 2019 beyond JCPOA limits in response to US sanctions, Iran has gained experience and technical knowledge. It has also replaced older centrifuges, the devices used to enrichment, with more advanced ones barred by the JCPOA, in some cases because of attacks on nuclear sites.

The US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement Wednesday that “this window” for talks would “not remain open forever as Iran continues to take provocative nuclear steps.”

Tehran's chief negotiator in the talks said on Twitter on Wednesday that Iran agrees "to start negotiations before the end of November" after what he called very constructive dialogue with a European Union negotiator.

Ali Bagheri Kani said "an exact date would be announced in the course of the next week."

At the same time, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran told reporters that Iran expects to see “goodwill” from President Joe Biden and he should release $10 billion in Iran’s frozen funds.

At the White House, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Iranians have made "similar comments over the last several days," adding the White House will "leave it up to the Europeans and our negotiators to determine when the next step would be."

Psaki said the US remains committed to "pursuing a diplomatic path forward."

Iran withdrew from negotiations in June and has refused to return despite repeated calls by the United States and its European allies. Meanwhile it is enriching uranium beyond the 2015 nuclear deal limits that worries other countries.

With reporting by AP

Speaking to reporters in Tehran after a conference on Afghanistan, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Iran would decide on when to return to nuclear talks in Vienna after discussions in Brussels between Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri-Kani and the European Union’s Enrique Mora, who coordinates the Vienna process.

After meeting Mora, Bagheri tweeted from Brussels that they had reached agreement to resume negotiations before the end of November, with the exact date confirmed “next week.”

Not too far away

Amir-Abdollahian put as “not too far away” the date for resuming talks with the “4+1” – the five world powers without the US, which takes part in Vienna indirectly – and said this date would be set “Wednesday night or after [Bagheri-]Kani’s return to Iran, if we need more consultations.”

Amir-Abdollahian added, “We do not want to return to negotiations from the point of an impasse at Vienna talks, but we accept the format of the Vienna talks.”

Amir-Abdollahian said Iran’s need for clarification with the EU had involved discussing “how all the parties who return to the agreement will demonstrate that JCPOA sanctions against Iran would be fully lifted.” Iran did not, he explained, want to “return to negotiations from the point of an impasse at Vienna talks, but we accept the format of the Vienna talks.”

Iran suspended in June its participation in the Vienna talks, aimed at reviving its nuclear 2015 deal with world powers, first for the presidential election and then so new president Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) could prepare for the talks. But almost three months after Raisi’s inauguration, Tehran has stalled over agreeing a date to return to Vienna.

Concerned over delays

The three European signatories of the agreement – the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – and to a lesser extent Russia and China have expressed concerned over the delay. After the US left the JCPOA in 2018, Iran began exceeding the deal’s nuclear limits and is now enriching uranium to 20 and 60 percent purity, reducing the time needed to acquire 90-percent-purified uranium for a nuclear device.

Amir-Abdollahian also referred to a looming trip to Tehran of Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as “certain” although the date was “not important.” Grossi has requested an urgent meeting to revolve disagreement over IAEA access to the Karaj site where Iran makes centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium.

While many diplomats involved in the Vienna process felt progress was made, there was difficulty agreeing which US sanctions contravened the JCPOA and exactly how the expanded and improved Iranian atomic program should be brought back within the JCPOA.

Tehran has argued that some US sanctions ostensibly on grounds other than the nuclear program impede its ability to benefit from the JCPOA and that it needs guarantees that Washington would not again withdraw from the agreement as previous president Donald Trump did in 2018.

“[President Joe] Biden must demonstrate his will about returning to JCPOA,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “We are not so eager for America’s return to the JCPOA for the sake of returning. The important issue is the result, if it is to Iran’s benefit or not. Would America return in order to lift sanctions, or to impose new limitations?”

Unfreezing $10 billion of Iran’s funds – this is money owed to Iran by third countries fearing US punitive action – would, Amir-Abdollahian said, “show that Americans are serious about lifting the sanctions.”

Sullivan speaking from the White House was referring to the G20 Summit this weekend and the global climate summit next week.

He added that Biden looks forward to discussing the Iran nuclear issue especially with the E3, the United Kingdom, France and Germany who are participants in the 2015 Iran deal (JCPOA), so that the US and Europe can present "a united front after the four years of division on the Iran policy in the last administration."

Asked about at what stage the Administration would consider that Iran has passed the point of no return in its nuclear program, Sullivan avoided a specific answer.

"I'm not fixing a date on that. Obviously, we closely monitor the progress in Iran's nuclear program. We are alarmed and concerned by the steps that they have taken since they left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," Sullivan said.

He added, “Within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, there were constraints on that program that were significant and substantial. We had a lid on that program. Now we do not because we don't have that deal. So, our first and highest priority is to get back to the table and get back to a deal that does, in fact, place a lid on Iran's nuclear program."

The national security adviser said the US and its partners still want a diplomatic solution to bring both America and Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal that former President Donald Trump withdrew from.

Iran suspended its participation in multilateral negotiations in Vienna in June and has not responded to calls to return to the talks. Meanwhile it continues enriching uranium and getting closer to a point where it can have enough fissile material for a nuclear device.

Sullivan underscored the window for diplomacy "is not unlimited...and that we of course, retain all other options to be able to deal with this program as necessary."

“And we will be sending clear messages to the Iranians, as we have been doing over the course of the past few months, that this window is not unlimited, that we do need to see a return to diplomacy and progress at the diplomatic table, and that we of course, retain all other options to be able to deal with this program as necessary.”

Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency last week it had temporarily fed uranium enriched to up to 20% into extra “single machine and intermediate cascades...without any collection of products”, the IAEA said in a statement, adding it later verified Iran had begun feeding just one IR-6 centrifuge but the product was not being collected.

The move is likely to help Iran refine its knowledge of the enrichment process - something Western powers generally condemn because it is irreversible - but since this time the product is not being collected it will not immediately accelerate Iran's production of uranium enriched to close to weapons-grade.

Iran suspended multilateral talks in Vienna in June aimed at restoring the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement that curbed its nuclear activities. In the meantime, it continues its uranium enrichment, stockpiling 20-percent and 60-percent enriched fissile material.

The JCPOA put a 3.65-percent enrichment cap on Iran. The 20-percent enrichment level is already high and the 60-percent degree of purity has no civilian use.

The latest move has, however, prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency to "increase the frequency and intensity of its safeguards activities" at the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at Natanz, the IAEA said in a report seen by Reuters. As of around 90% uranium is considered weapons-grade.

The IAEA said in a statement outlining the report that Iran informed it last week of changes to the setup of centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium, at the plant - Iran would feed uranium enriched to up to 20% into limited numbers of extra centrifuges without collecting the product.

"On 25 October 2021, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding (uranium hexafluoride gas) enriched up to 20% U-235 into a single IR-6 centrifuge in R&D line 2 at PFEP and that the resulting product and tails streams were being re-combined," the IAEA report said, meaning that after separating the enriched product it was mixed with the centrifuge's waste and not kept.

Iran had said it planned to also feed uranium enriched to up to 20% into other single centrifuges or small- to medium-sized cascades, or clusters, of machines on the same line, but those were not being fed at the time, the IAEA said.

Then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the pact in 2018 and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions. About a year later, Iran started violating some of the deal's limits on uranium enrichment.

President Joe Biden announced before his election that he intended to restore the JCPOA and in April the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China began talks in Vienna.

Iran has also curtailed IAEA’s monitoring activities since February, demanding that US lift sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

Report by Reuters