Iran Reiterates Its Demands Prior To Talks, As It Gets Russian, Chinese Support

Speaking to state television Thursday, Saeed Khatibzadeh was reacting to reports that US officials had discussed with Israel a possible step-by-step approach to reviving Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“The position of the Islamic Republic has been clear for months and its new government without any hesitation has articulated its position,” Khatibzadeh said. “American sanctions should be lifted all at once, and their removal should be verifiable, together with objective guarantees.”

Recent reports in American media spoke of an interim agreement possibly suspending some sanctions, with waivers promising the US would not take action against third parties paying money owed to Iran, in return for some limitations on the Iranian nuclear program. There have also been reports that Israeli officials, who opposed the 2015 deal, dismissed the idea.

Focus on sanctions

Khatibzadeh resisted a question from state television framing the Vienna talks as between Iran and “the other party,” meaning the US. “We don’t have another party,” he said. “Iran is in negotiation with 4+1, and our focus is on ways to lift US sanctions.”

The “4+1” refers to the remaining parties to the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), who are formally involved in talks with Iran in Vienna that resume on November 29: China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

The JCPOA was in 2015 signed by Iran and the P5+1, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, but the US, having voted for the JCPOA at the UNSC, then left the agreement in 2018 and imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.

In six rounds of talks in Vienna the US has taken part indirectly. Tehran has recently emphasized that Washington, which has been emphasizing its close consultation with Israel and the Gulf Arab states, is not formally in the diplomatic loop.

Mohammad Eslami, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Thursday rejected US criticism that Iran did not fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The US representative at the IAEA Thursday told the agency’s board of governors that if Iran did not allow the IAEA to repair its monitoring cameras at a nuclear installation in Karaj, west of Tehran, Washington would push for an extraordinary IAEA meeting before the end of the year.

‘Time was short’

Eslami argued Karaj access, which Iran restricted after a drone attack in June, was related to the JCPOA and that as the US, having left the JCPOA, should not meddle. Iran in February restricted its cooperation with the agency to broadly that required under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT).

Although it has a temporary agreement in place allowing the IAEA to service monitoring equipment in nuclear sites, Karaj, which was attacked by a drone in June, is a manufacturing plant and therefore not covered under NPT safeguards.

Eslami repeated Khatibzadeh’s earlier remarks that the focus in Vienna talks should not be on nuclear issues but on ensuring the US lifted sanctions. He insisted the IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi had this week confirmed that the agency had not found evidence of Iran breaking its commitments.

In his trip to Tehran Monday, Grossi had tried to reach agreement with Iran over servicing monitoring equipment in Karaj – which Iran allowed under the JCPOA– and to gain what the agency regards as satisfactory answers over unexplained uranium traces found in three sites where work was carried out before 2003.

Eslami repeated a new argument that Iranian officials returned to on Friday, that the talks with Grossi had been “inconclusive” because “time was short.”

In a statement presented on the second day of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board meeting, the US expressed deep disappointment that an eleventh-hour trip by Director General Rafael Grossi to Tehran, the Iranian government failed to resolve outstanding issues.

An extraordinary board meeting can result in censuring Iran; a step that can be a prelude to taking the case to the United Nations Security Council for more serious action against the Islamic Republic.

Iran has reduced it cooperation in allowing the IAEA to monitor its nuclear facilities since February, prompting the international watchdog to warn that it can no longer be certain what exactly transpires in these sensitive installations. Iran’s decision was part of its efforts to reduce commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA.

In September Iran allowed the IAEA to do maintenance work on its cameras, but later did not allow the replacement of damaged cameras at its Karaj manufacturing site where it produces uranium enrichment equipment.

“If Iran’s non-cooperation is not immediately remedied, including on the issues raised under the JCPOA agenda, especially the restoration of continuity of knowledge at Karaj, the Board will have no choice but to reconvene in extraordinary session before the end of this year in order to address the crisis,” the statement read by US Chargé d’Affaires Louis L. Bono said.

Multilateral nuclear talks with Iran to revive the JCPOA will resume on Monday and a negative IAEA board meeting can have an impact on these negotiations. The overall mood surrounding the talks is not very positive, as Iran has brought tougher demands to the table, asking US sanctions to be lifted before any new deal is reached.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of Iran's nuclear energy organizations, Behruz Kamalvandi, said Thursday that the Karaj facility does not fall under monitoring agreements with the IAEA. He also tried to soften the impact of Grossi's failed trip to Tehran by claiming that time was too short to reach an agreement.

Iran has also boosted uranium enrichment as it has reduced cooperation with the IAEA. Tehran is now producing 20-percent and 60-percent uranium, raising alarm that it could be months away from producing a nuclear weapon.

The United Kingdom, France and Germany in a joint statement on Wednesday warned that Iran has been escalating its nuclear program “systematically” for two years, “permanently and irreversibly upgrading its nuclear capabilities”.

The US also raised the issue of conditions under which IAEA inspectors work in Iran. Grossi in his reports has said that his staff undergo invasive searches during their work. The uS said it was “seriously alarmed” that “Agency inspectors continue to experience excessively invasive physical searches at the hands of Iranian security personnel, and that such treatment threatens to prevent Agency inspectors from effectively discharging their functions.”

Ali Bagheri-Kani who is also Iran’s deputy foreign minister, also said that the Biden Administration should provide a guarantee that Washington will not once again withdraw from an agreement.

Speaking to The Independent days before nuclear talks resume in Vienna, he insisted that former US president Donald Trump’s policy of maximum pressure on Iran had failed, and the Biden Administration should not repeat the same mistake.

Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 saying the agreement cannot stop Iran from producing nuclear weapons and began imposing sanctions that became known as a ‘maximum pressure’ policy.

Although Tehran claims to have defeated US sanctions, its economy is in a crisis with nearly 50-percent inflation, a 50-percent budget deficit and a falling currency.

World powers say that earlier this year, six rounds of talks in Vienna made a lot of progress, but Iran’s new government formed in August is dominated by hardliners who have put forth new conditions for restoring the JCPOA.

“Our president said they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. The diplomats are in the lead on this, but Central Command always has a variety of plans that we could execute, if directed,” McKenzie said.

After Iran suspended nuclear talks in Vienna in June and kept postponing the resumption of talks, the Biden Administration started issuing warnings in recent weeks that “other options” are available to deal with a fast-advancing Iranian nuclear program. Iran finally agreed to resume talks on November 29, but it has toughened its position.

General McKenzie also said that Iran is very close to obtaining a nuclear weapon, adding, “I think they like the idea of being able to breakout.”

Tehran is demanding the removal of all US sanctions imposed since 2018, all at once, and verification of the result. It is also demanding that the Biden Administration provide guarantees that no future US government would withdraw from an agreement.

Former President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2018, saying it was inadequate in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Mohammad Reza Ghaebi, Tehran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) spoke at the ongoing meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors saying that the United Kingdom, France and Germany (E3) have failed to stand up to US maximum pressure sanctions and instead criticize his government.

Ghaebi defended Iran’s decision to reduce IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities and Tehran’s accelerated uranium enrichment process, insisting that purifying fissile material to 60 percent is within Iran’s rights under international conventions.

The E3 in their statement had warned that the higher-degree enrichment has no civilian purpose and demanded that Iran immediately return to its obligations under the Joint Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which allows only 3.65 percent enriched uranium.

Ghaebi reiterated Iran’s position that the only reason for the current crisis is the actions of the United States by withdrawing from the JCPOA and imposing sanctions. He also repeated Tehran’s demand that sanctions should be “verifiably” removed before there can be a new deal. He said as along as US sanctions remain in place no one should expect continence by Iran.