Iran Wants To Give US 'Another Chance' For Reaching A Nuclear Deal

Yaghoub Rezazadeh, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Sunday that the decision has been taken thanks to the latest efforts of the European parties to reach a conclusion about the negotiations. 

Rezazadeh added that the Islamic Republic had proposed that the next round would be held in Iran, but the final location of the negotiations will be determined following the agreement by the parties.

He said during the past few days the members of the committee held several meetings with Ali Bagheri-Kani, the head of Tehran’s negotiating team.

Moreover, Ali Bagheri-Kani tweeted on Sunday that “We shared our proposed ideas, both on substance and form, to pave the way for a swift conclusion of Vienna negotiations which were aimed at fixing the damaging complicated situation caused by the US unilateral and unlawful withdrawal.”

He added that Tehran works closely with the JCPOA partners, in particular with the EU coordinator of the talks “to give another chance to the US to demonstrate good faith and act responsibly. As Iran, we stand ready to conclude the negotiations in a short order, should the other side be ready to do the same.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price said on July 26 that the US was mulling European Union’s proposals over Iran’s nuclear program. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently produced new ideas to bridge differences between the United States and Iran and allow both to return to the agreement.

Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic), was launched in 1979 by current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the mouthpiece of the fundamentalist Islamic Republic Party but has increasingly adopted a critical stance against hardliners who have established full control over the state.

The newspaper wrote on Saturday, July 30 in an editorial by its editor Massih Mohajeri, , a cleric who maintains his own independent views regardless of the paper's former political affiliation, that the Raisi administration has visible weaknesses in the area of foreign policy and nuclear negotiations."

During the past year, Jomhouri Eslami has opposed the Iranian government's official views on foreign policy issues including relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the nuclear talks and domestic political issues including the violent crackdown on what Iranian hardliners call "bad hijab" women.

Diplomats negotiating to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, JCPOA, have repeatedly said that an agreement has almost been completed in 11 months of talks in Vienna, but Tehran demands more sanctions be lifted than Washington is willing to waive.

The daily wrote that many Iranians ask in political circles, family gatherings and government and private business office meetings "Where are we standing in the talks about [reviving] the nuclear deal and where are we headed? Will the negotiations result in an agreement or remain futile?"

According to the daily, the question arises by the fact that contrary to slogans by Iranian officials, a major part of the economy and the people's livelihoods are tied to the sanctions. The newspaper stressed that slogans about nullifying sanctions without doing any harm to the people have led to no tangible results.

"Those who chanted that slogan have been in charge of the country's executive affairs for a year now, and they have reached the conclusion that Iran's economic problems cannot be solved without lifting the sanctions," Mohajeri wrote.However, he acknowledged that part of the country's problems are the outcome of the inefficiency of Raisi's economic ministers and Raisi has so far refused to replace them.

"The paper said there is now an opportunity to reach a fair deal. “While officials on both side agree that an agreement is within reach, and some regional players have talked about a golden opportunity to reach a deal, Iranian officials are expected to realize that no better situation is going to emerge for an agreement," stressed the Jomhouri Eslami, adding that the Iranian nation will be happy with the achievement that was within reach in May 2021 on the final days of Iran's previous government, and suggested that Iranian negotiators should strive to finalize that agreement.

During the past weeks, many Iranian observers including commentators and lawmakers criticized President Ebrahim Raisi for claiming that the people wish to resist rather than reach an agreement that would lift the sanctions and bring about a breakthrough in Iran's economy.

Some former Iranian diplomats suggested that Raisi and other ultraconservatives take advantage of the current foreign policy impasse over the revival of the JCPOA for their own personal or factional political gains to strengthen their foothold in Iran's domestic politics.

This comes while several Iranian politicians including former vice President Mostafa Hashemi Taba have said that the current foreign policy impasse perpetuates the country's paralyzing economic crisis, one of the worst in Iran's modern history.

Gantz said in a tweet that he talked with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the need for continued pressure on Iran as well as negotiations for a nuclear agreement.

Earlier in the day, Iran's foreign minister reiterated his country’s resolve to clinch an agreement for the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remark in a late Saturday phone call with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

During the call, the two foreign ministers discussed the latest developments in their countries’ relations in various political, economic and consular sectors, including cooperation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The top Iranian diplomat added that the US constantly claims it is in favor of an agreement, but that claim "should manifest itself [both] in the text of the agreement and in action."

On the same day, Amir-Abdollahian had phone calls with his counterparts from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Iraq, saying Tehran is serious about reaching a durable and strong agreement on the revival of the JCPOA.

Bisimchi Media (Radioman Media) Telegram channel on Saturday published a short video entitled “When Will Iran’s Sleeping Nuclear Warheads Awaken” in which it said the Islamic Republic will begin building nuclear bombs in the shortest possible time “if the US or the Zionist regime make any stupid mistakes.”

The video also says that uranium enrichment in secret underground facilities of Fordow, near Qom, has brought Iran to the threshold of nuclear breakout and joining the nuclear powers’ club and stresses that transforming the country’s “peaceful nuclear program to a nuclear weapons program” is possible in a very short time.

Israeli has repeatedly threatened in recent months to use all means at its disposal to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threat, and has said its armed forces are preparing for action if necessary.

“The nuclear facilities of Fordow have been built deep under mountains of Iran and are protected against trench-busting bombs and even nuclear explosion… all infrastructures required for nuclear breakout have been prepared in it,” the video said while adding that the facilities at Natanz may be highly vulnerable to a possible attack by Western powers and Israel but Fordow will immediately assume war footing and begin the nuclear breakout project within a short time if Natanz comes under missile attack.

The video report also suggests that Iran’s ballistic missiles have the capability of “turning New York into hellish ruins”, citing Iran’s space program, which has so far been mostly a failure.

Sepah-e Qods Telegram channel republished Bishimchi Media’s video with the caption “Iran Prepared To Carry Out Top Secret EMAD Project: Building First Nuclear Warhead If Natanz Comes Under Attack”.

EMAD, another form of an earlier weapons program, AMAD, refers to Iran’s purported secret nuclear effort, which started in 1989 under the leadership of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and according to the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, stopped in 2003. According to a IAEA director general’s report in 2015, Iran specifically denied the existence of the AMAD Plan and the ‘Orchid Office’ as elements of such a program.

Iran has now enriched enough uranium to 60 percent that if further enriched to 90 percent, the fissile material will be sufficient for a nuclear bomb within a few weeks.

Some Iranian officials, including Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have suggested that Iran is a nuclear threshold country but does not want or need a nuclear weapon and is only enriching uranium for energy and other civilian uses. They often add that Iran's supreme leader has declared that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are all forbidden under Islam (haram).

Khamenei’s fatwa, or religious edict, against the acquisition or manufacture of nuclear weapons was first revealed in a statement from Iran to the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) in Vienna in August 2005.

Then-Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi in February 2021 hinted that the fatwa could change. Former Iranian diplomat and IRGC brigadier-general Amir Mousavi also in an interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television in January 2021 had said fatwas are not permanent and are issued in accordance with developing circumstances. “Therefore, I believe that if the Americans and Zionists act in a dangerous manner, the [Khamenei] fatwa might change.”

The US and Israel agreed in July to take a joint stance against Iran's nuclear program and involvement in regional conflicts and said they would work together to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The English-language Tehran Times warned the “western media” Friday against “early judgment” on the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently produced new ideas to bridge differences between the United States and Iran and allow both to return to the agreement.

The Tehran Times highlighted the Wall Street Journal, which July 25 ran an opinion piece by Walter Russell Mead, Professor of Foreign Affairs at Bard College, New York, comparing the JCPOA to Schrodinger’s cat, a hypothetical feline in an indeterminate state that is neither alive nor dead.

Some analysts believe that agreement remains likely to revive the JCPOA, which the US left in 2018, with Iran by 2019 expanding its nuclear program beyond the deal’s limits. This remains the assessment of Mossad, Israel’s extraterritorial intelligence agency, Al-Monitor’s Israel correspondent Ben Caspit reported Friday.

But some European diplomats have this week privately expressed pessimism to journalists, arguing Borrell’s proposals will not achieve the necessary concessions from either Iran or the US, each of whom blames the other for the failure of seven-party talks in Vienna paused in March and June’s bilateral US-Iran two-day round in Qatar.

The basic challenges remain agreeing which US sanctions breach the JCPOA, what guarantees Washington offers over respecting a revived deal, and exactly how Iran’s expanded and refined nuclear program should be brought back within JCPOA limits. There have also been reports that Iran has demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drop enquiries into nuclear work Iran conducted before 2003, although Tehran’s explanations deemed unsatisfactory by the agency led to a critical resolution passed by the IAEA board in June.

Russian, Chinese calculations

Analysts also suggest that wider factors, including the Ukraine crisis, have come to play a growing role in calculations made by all parties. Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, said this week that Iran might judge that Europe’s need for oil and gas come the winter would lead it to put pressure on the US to compromise, while Washington continues to think its ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions will put Iran under growing economic strain.

Vaez also noted that Moscow and Beijing, which is buying nearly all Iran’s oil exports, might both judge that as long as Iran did not ‘weaponize’ its nuclear program, the current drift would “bog down” the US “in the Middle East and divert its attention from Russia and China.”

This was also part of Mead’s argument in the Wall Street Journal. “Whatever their long-term concerns about a nuclear Iran,” he wrote, “both Xi Jinping and Vladmir Putin seem more interested in stiffening Iran's commitment to the anti-American alliance than in facilitating an agreement that would reduce the pressure on a beleaguered American president.”

The US administration appear to believe they can manage the situation. Brett McGurk, President Joe Biden’s Middle East advisor, reportedly said recently that while it was “highly unlikely” that the JCPOA would be revived soon, the administration thought it could continue to deploy sanctions “but not needlessly escalate the situation.”